The CRTC recently released its CASL enforcement highlights for the period from October 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021.
This period saw the largest CASL penalty issued to an individual — $75,000 — issued to Scott William Brewer for sending upwards of 650,000 unsolicited emails.
The highlights note that the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal of CompuFinder’s constitutional challenge to CASL. Recall that the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the law’s constitutionality last June.
The CRTC’s Spam Reporting Centre has now received over 144,000 complaints – that’s an average of 5560 per week! The highlights contain an interesting breakdown of the sources of spam, the reasons for complaints, and other statistics.
Lastly, the highlights also bring attention to the CRTC’s domestic and international partnerships through which it works to promote anti-spam enforcement.
The highlights serve as an important reminder to individuals and organizations alike that anti-spam enforcement is alive and well. And for those worried they might have been the subject of one or more of those 144,000 complaints, it’s never too late to start bringing your electronic communications into compliance with CASL!