The information below is provided as a general guideline and it is up to each individual to determine what type of consent applies to a given contact when their information is first received.
Implied Consent (Active Customer- no expiration)
This type of consent applies to a contact that is in an ongoing relationship with you but has not directly provided their consent (i.e. specific verbal or written consent given for you to send CEMs). An example of this is an individual that buys a product or service from you on an ongoing basis over many years. Since they are still making frequent purchases, their implied consent keeps ‘rolling over’. The relationship is based upon last purchase date, so if there is an ongoing recurring purchase for products and services there is no expiration. This type of consent transitions to Implied Consent (Inactive Customer- 2-year expiry) when this relationship ends. (i.e. service end date, cancellation date, last purchase date, etc).
Implied Consent (Inactive Customer- 2-year expiry)
This type of consent applies to a contact that has made a one-time purchase of a product or service, or there is a definitive service end date (i.e. end of contract) but has not directly provided their consent (i.e. specific verbal or written consent given for you to send CEMs). An example of this is an individual that attends a seminar or purchases a product less than once every 2 years without an ongoing relationship. Their implied consent is valid for 2 years from the last purchase/service date.
Implied Consent (Inquiry- 6-month expiry)
This type of consent applies to a contact that has made an inquiry, participated in a simple contest/draw etc. but has not directly provided their consent (i.e. specific verbal or written consent given for you to send CEMs). An example of this is someone who leaves their business card for a draw at a tradeshow, or someone who asks a pricing question without making a purchase from you. Their implied consent is valid for a period of 6 months following this interaction.
Implied Consent (Prior Customer July 1st 2014)
This type of consent applies to a contact that was obtained prior to CASL and has not directly provided their consent (i.e. specific verbal or written consent given for you to send CEMs). This type of consent is no longer used as those contacts expired en masse on July 1st, 2017. These contacts have expired consent.
Expressed Consent
This type of consent applies to a contact that has provided specific verbal or written consent for you to send CEMs. To obtain this type of consent, the following 3 criteria need to be met: the company contact information needs to be provided, the contact needs to know what they are signing up for and they need to know and be provided with the ability to unsubscribe from receiving your content at any time. Expressed consent does not expire and is valid until a contact unsubscribes. An example of this is someone who fills in a webform to be part of a mailing list (provided certain verbiage is on the form) or provides verbal consent that they would like to receive your content knowing they can unsubscribe.
Confirmed Consent
This type of consent applies to a contact that has confirmed their either verbal or written consent for you to send CEMs. This type of consent applies to an implied consent contact that indicates that they would like to continue receiving your content before their consent expires, or that has clicked a checkbox on a webform to confirm what they are signing up for, and follows the same 3 rules as for Expressed consent: the company contact information is present, they know what they are signing up for, understand their ability to unsubscribe at any time. Like Expressed Consent, Confirmed Consent does not expire.
Exempt
This consent type is applied to a contact that is exempt from CASL. Examples of these types of contacts include business partners, friends and family.
Non-Canadian
As the name implies, this consent type is appropriate if the contact does not reside in Canada.
