66 | LEXPERT • June 2018 | www.lexpert.ca/usguide
1. CASL still vexing companies
Those in charge of ensuring compliance
around Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation
(CASL) drew a collective deep breath and
exhaled hard on June 7, 2017, as the fed-
eral government issued an order-in-coun-
cil delaying the coming into force date of
CASL's proposed private right of action
(PRA) until completion of a parliamen-
tary review.
The suspension was issued "in order
to promote legal certainty for numer-
ous stakeholders claiming to experience
difficulties in interpreting several provi-
sions of the Act while being exposed to
litigation risk."
The looming PRA had created a sense
of urgency with businesses to make sure
they were compliant with CASL. It was
anticipated that the PRA could provide
Regulatory requirements
in Canada have wide-
reaching effects for
business and will continue
to ramp up, potentially
impacting cross-border
competitiveness
By Jennifer Brown
AN EVOLVING
REGULATORY LANDSCAPE
Regulatory
Ask in-house counsel and other business
leaders what keeps them up at night and
they will more than likely say that the
growing regulatory and compliance bur-
den has become the number-one thing
that consumes their thoughts, especially
as they relate to cross-border business
and the ability to protect their organiza-
tions from harm.
As one in-house counsel remarked re-
cently, "Change is often good, but politics
continues to get in the way of a stable busi-
ness climate."
As businesses try to grow and innovate,
it seems government finds more ways to
complicate life and raise issues around risk
mitigation. We look at three areas of regu-
latory compliance that remain a top con-
cern for in-house counsel and the business
units they serve.
