The Government of Canada announced today the introduction of anti-spam legislation called the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (“ECPA”) that “aims to boost confidence in online commerce by protecting the privacy and personal security concerns that are associated with spam, counterfeit websites and spyware.”
According to the government’s News Release, the ECPA would allow businesses and individuals to initiate civil actions against anyone who violates the law. The ECPA deals with unsolicited text messages, or “cellphone spam”, as a form of “unsolicited commercial electronic message”.
It would establish a regulatory enforcement regime that would enable the CRTC to impose penalties of up to $1 million for individuals and $10 million in all other cases. The Competition Bureau would use a penalty regime already provided for in the Competition Act, and the federal Privacy Commissioner‘s powers to cooperate and exchange information with her counterparts would be expanded in respect of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
The ECPA is nearly 70 pages long. Stay tuned to this blog. As soon as I’ve been able to digest the content I’ll post again on how the ECPA is likely going to affect Canadian businesses, especially those enaged in online marketing.
Posted by Brian Bowman 
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