The CRTC issued its first CASL violation to Compu-Finder for four alleged violations occurring between July 2, 2014 and September 16, 2014. A penalty of $1.1 million dollars was imposed by the CRTC and Compu-Finder will have 30 days to submit written representations to the CRTC or pay the penalty. The alleged violations relate to commercial electronic messages sent by Compu-Finder without a recipient’s consent and without properly functioning unsubscribe mechanisms. According to the Spam Reporting Centre, complaints against Compu-Finder accounted for 26% of all complaints submitted in its industry sector. 

Manon Bombardier, Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer at the CRTC had the following comments:

Prior to the coming into force of the anti-spam law, the CRTC conducted numerous outreach initiatives to increase the awareness of businesses on the new requirements. Creating a secure online environment for Canadians is also the responsibility of industry. Despite the CRTC’s efforts, Compu-Finder flagrantly violated the basic principles of the law by continuing to send unsolicited commercial electronic messages after the law came into force to email addresses it found by scouring websites. Complaints submitted to the Spam Reporting Centre clearly indicate that consumers didn’t find Compu-Finder’s offerings relevant to them.  By issuing this Notice of Violation, my goal is to encourage a change of behaviour on the part of Compu-Finder such that it adapts its business practices to the modern reality of electronic commerce and the requirements of the anti-spam law. We take violations to the law very seriously and expect businesses to be in compliance

You can read the full text of the CRTC’s news release here: http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=944159  

Here are some resources on CASL that you might find helpful.