Canada and US jurisdictional scope

Cross-border email raises two separate questions: where the recipient is and how the message reaches them. The sender's office location cannot settle the decision. For a U.S. company sending a commercial electronic message to Canada, CASL applies.¹ Check the message path separately from the legal connection it creates. CASL covers commercial electronic messages sent from or to Canadian computers or devices in Canada.² Messages merely routed through Canadian computer systems are outside that rule.³ The decision should use the recipient's location, the message's purpose, the sending connection, and consent.

Run the jurisdiction check

Run these checks before you write, send, or approve a sequence. Each answer narrows the rule to apply.

Stage	What you are trying to learn	Example question
Recipient	where the person is located	Where will this recipient receive and use the message?
Message	whether the email encourages commercial activity	Does any part of this email promote or offer something?
Connection	how the message is sent	Where is the sending system, and what path does the message take?
Permission	whether consent exists and can be shown	What permission do we have, and where is its record?
Action	which rule set the campaign will use	Which audience segment gets this version and this send decision?

If a row has no answer, pause that recipient or segment. A shared campaign setting should not make the decision for every address.

Start with the recipient and sending connection

CASL applies to anyone who sends commercial electronic messages to Canadian email addresses.⁴ Keep those recipients in a separate compliance path until the consent check is complete.

A commercial electronic message sent from or to a Canadian computer or device falls within the stated scope.² A message that merely passes through a Canadian computer system does not.³ Ask where the message is sent from and where it is received, then record the answer with the contact.

Classify the message before checking permission

Message purpose determines whether the consent gate applies.

CASL applies only to commercial electronic messages.⁵ A commercial electronic message includes an electronic message such as an email, text, or voice message that encourages participation in a commercial activity, even when profit is not expected.⁶ One purpose is enough when the message promotes or offers a product, good, service, business, or gaming opportunity.⁷

Read the whole message, including links and calls to action. A donation request on its own, with no other promotion, does not require consent under CASL.⁸ Add a commercial promotion to that request and consent is required.⁹ Move to the permission stage when any part of the message encourages the recipient to take part in a commercial activity.

Apply the consent gate

For a commercial email, permission is the go/no-go decision. Keep it separate from copy quality and the sender's usual outbound process.

The U.S. model is opt-out and the Canadian model is opt-in.¹⁰ Under an opt-in model, the recipient must affirmatively give permission to receive information about products or sales.¹¹ That permission may come through a website selection or an email request to the organization.¹²

For each recipient in the Canadian path, identify the permission event before sending. Record what the person agreed to, when the agreement was captured, and which organization requested it. If consent or an applicable exception is unavailable, one described route is to use postal service to obtain consent before sending commercial electronic messages to Canadians.¹³

Keep the contact paused until the team can connect the address to the permission record and explain why the message fits that permission.

Handle mixed lists and reversed directions

A mixed-market list needs recipient-level routing. Attach the rule decision to the segment, not the campaign name.

Both CASL and CAN-SPAM can apply when email goes to subscribers based in Canada or the United States.¹⁴ Use the strictest applicable rules as the general operating rule for a mixed list.¹⁵

Direction matters. A Canadian company sending commercial electronic messages to the United States may follow CAN-SPAM.¹⁶ A U.S. company sending commercial electronic messages to Canada needs the Canadian review described above.¹ The sender's country alone does not determine the rule.

After the legal decision, check delivery separately because compliance alone does not guarantee that an email will reach the inbox.¹⁷

What not to do

These shortcuts create scope errors or leave the team unable to defend its send decision.

• Do not treat compliance with CAN-SPAM as a complete answer for another jurisdiction. It tells you nothing about your position elsewhere.¹⁸
• Do not send a commercial electronic message to parties in Canada without consent.¹⁹
• Do not rely on a consent record that the team cannot prove if the permission is challenged.²⁰
• Do not let a single address disappear inside a large list. One address can require adherence to the applicable laws.²¹