Canada’s anti-spam law (Bill C-28) celebrates its first anniversary on July 1. To understand the law’s impact on Quebec businesses, we decided to survey our customers.
The following infographic (in French) presents the results of this study along with a review of the law’s first year.
With more than 310,000 complaints, it’s clear the law meets a need among Canadians. A Cloudmark study also reveals a 37% drop in spam originating from Canada. These two figures show that the law is effective.
However, our survey shows that it is hurting business competitiveness. In fact, it isn’t the law itself that hurts businesses, but rather their lack of knowledge and their perception of it.
More than 60% of respondents believe the CRTC did not do a good job of raising awareness among SMBs. The CRTC did go on a tour, but the information didn’t reach businesses adequately.
What’s more, the law is complex, and even specialized lawyers disagree on certain points. As a result, the message businesses receive isn’t always consistent. Add to that the spectre of fines of up to $10 million, and you have the perfect recipe for scaring SMBs. In fact, 10% of the businesses surveyed simply stopped sending commercial emails, while 30% reduced the number of contacts on their mailing list.
Given that email is the most effective and least expensive promotional tool, depriving businesses of it makes no sense. But faced with uncertainty, many businesses have reduced or stopped using email for promotional purposes. 39% of the businesses surveyed say the law hurts their promotional efforts.
In fact, it’s entirely possible to keep sending commercial emails. You just have to follow best practices. And that’s where the CRTC hasn’t been clear enough publicly. For our part, we regularly hosted webinars on various topics related to the law (in French), and they were very popular.
Finally, 48% of businesses say the law hurts their competitiveness compared to American businesses. Many businesses believe American companies aren’t subject to the law, when in fact they are. This shows that the CRTC did not communicate this information well.
In short, Canada’s anti-spam law is effective, but it hurts business competitiveness. There is still a lot of education to be done so that businesses keep sending commercial emails while complying with the law.
What about you? What impact has the anti-spam law had on your business?