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Open letter to the Canadian government and all who care about small business in Canada The true cost of CASL to the Canadian Economy The Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) came into force on July 1, 2014 and proponents claim that it will rid Canadian inboxes of unwanted messages. It will do nothing of the sort as almost all the nasty messages we receive originate outside of Canada, where the law can’t reach the senders. What I haven’t seen anyone talk about is the enormous cost of this legislation to the economy. Enforcement could suck over $30 Billion out of the economy and result in tens of thousands of jobs lost annually In the first three days of the law being in force, the CRTC announced that they had received over 1,000 complaints already. The head of the CRTC has publicly stated that they will be vigilant in enforcing the law and aims to enforce the steep penalties that it contains. The first day that the law was in force was a national holiday, so it is not a stretch to assume that this pace of complaints will be maintained. Using 360 days to make the math easier, there would be 120,000 complaints in the first year. If we assume that only 50% of those complaints result in a penalty (and the rate could be much higher), and the average fine is $500,000 (the maximum fines are double to twenty times this amount), the government will issue a total of $30 billion in fines in the first year! This is a massive drain out of the economy. Where will this...
