OTTAWA – The CRTC has dismissed a constitutional challenge against Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) made by the first company it fined under the country’s anti-spam laws.
As Cartt.ca reported in March 2015, the Quebec-based company Compu-Finder was fined $1.1 million for sending commercial electronic messages without the recipient’s consent, as well as emails in which the unsubscribe mechanisms did not function properly. The violations occurred at various times in 2014.
The company made representations to the Commission in May 2015 seeking a review of the notice of violation and raising a constitutional challenge to CASL on various grounds. It also challenged the amount of the fine set out in the notice of violation, in part on constitutional grounds.
In the first of two compliance and enforcement decisions released Thursday, the Commission determined that CASL is not unconstitutional on any of the grounds raised by Compu-Finder.
The second decision confirmed that Compu-Finder did commit four violations of CASL, but decreased the amount of its initial administrative monetary penalty to $200,000. That fine is due by November 18, 2017 and Compu-Finder has 30 days to file an appeal of that decision with the Federal Court of Appeal.
