CASL consent in Canada: who your salon's marketing emails reach
Canada's anti-spam law (CASL) asks for consent before a business sends a commercial email. Slotora applies it for you: a Canadian salon's newsletters, review requests and win-back messages go only to clients who have not opted out and who visited in the last 2 years. This guide shows what that means on your screens, and what it leaves to you.
Create your salon accountThe rule, as Slotora applies it
CASL lets a business rely on implied consent when it has an existing business relationship with the person, and a purchase counts for the two years before the day the message is sent. Slotora reads that from your diary: a booking that was confirmed, marked arrived or completed, and whose start time has passed, within the last 24 months.
A cancelled booking, a no-show and a request you never approved do not count as a visit. A confirmed booking you never closed does, so salons that do not press Mark as completed are not penalised.
On top of that the client must not have said no. A client whose card does not show Agreed to receive offers and news is never sent marketing, in Canada or anywhere else. Both conditions are checked again at the moment each email leaves, not only when a list was drawn up last week.
Which messages the rule covers
Anything that sells or invites, rather than serves a booking already made.
Newsletters
Everything sent from Newsletter & posts. The count of recipients you see before sending is already the count CASL allows, so the number does not drop after you press send.
Automations
Rebooking reminders, win-backs and birthday greetings under Automations.
Review requests
Slotora treats the email after a visit asking for a review as marketing here, so it follows the same rule. A recent visit is almost always there for it, by its nature.
Nita's rebooking list
The drafted messages to regulars who have quietly stopped coming go only to clients the rule allows. Someone who last came three years ago is not on it.
What CASL does not stop
Messages about a booking the client made are not marketing: the confirmation, the reminder, the new-time email, the cancellation, the pre-visit form and a waitlist notice for a day she asked to hear about. These go to every client with an email address, whatever her consent and however long ago she first came.
So a client who books today after three years away gets her confirmation and reminder at once, and from that visit onwards the window opens again for your newsletters.
Getting your marketing ready for Canada
Four things to do before your first newsletter.
01
Complete your salon's mailing address
Every marketing email to a Canadian client ends with a line saying it was sent by your salon, at your address, through Slotora, above the unsubscribe link. The address comes from Settings: street, city and postal code. CASL asks for a mailing address in each message, so fill it in fully.
02
Import honestly
When you bring clients over with Import, tick These clients agreed to marketing only if they did. Left unticked, every imported client is marked as having said no, and none of them is ever sent marketing.
03
Ask new clients at the desk
On Clients → New client, tick Agreed to receive offers and news only after she says yes. A client added without the tick still gets every booking email; she just never gets offers.
04
Expect an old list to shrink
A client book imported from years of paper records will include people who have not been in for longer than 2 years. Slotora leaves them out of marketing until they book again. Their records, notes and history stay exactly as they are.
When a client unsubscribes
Every marketing email carries Unsubscribe from marketing. One click records her refusal on her card straight away, and nothing commercial is sent to her again. CASL allows up to ten business days to act on a refusal; Slotora acts on it before the next email is built.
You can also untick Agreed to receive offers and news on her card if she tells you at the desk. Booking emails continue either way.
Where the product stops and your judgement starts
Slotora applies one reading of CASL to every Canadian salon. It is not legal advice.
- No way yet to record express consent
- A client who has not visited in 2 years cannot be kept on your list by written consent recorded in Slotora; the screens for that exist only in Germany and Austria today. She returns to your newsletters when she books again.
- Inquiries do not count
- CASL also allows six months of implied consent after an inquiry. Slotora records bookings, not inquiries, so it does not use that basis.
- Your own emails are your own
- If you email clients from your own inbox or another tool, the rule above does not reach those messages. CASL applies to them all the same.
- Unsure? Ask a professional
- If your marketing is unusual — contests, referrals that pay, partners — speak to someone qualified about CASL before you send.
Questions about CASL and your clients
Why did my newsletter go to fewer clients than I have?
Because only clients who have not opted out and visited in the last 24 months are included. The count before you send already reflects that.
Does a cancelled booking count as a visit?
No. Only bookings that were confirmed, arrived or completed, and whose start has passed. A no-show does not count either.
Will a client who unsubscribed still get her reminders?
Yes. Confirmations, reminders and changes to her own bookings are not marketing, and she keeps getting them.
Is a review request marketing?
Slotora treats it as marketing for Canadian salons, so it follows the same consent rule as a newsletter.
What address appears at the bottom of my marketing emails?
Your salon's name and the street, city and postal code in Settings, followed by “through Slotora” and the unsubscribe link.
Sources
The Act itself, on the federal Justice Laws Website, read on the day shown. Slotora's reading of it is described above; it is not legal advice.
- Justice Laws Website — Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, S.C. 2010, c. 23, sections 1–8 (s. 6: content of a message) — https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-1.6/page-1.html · Read on
- Justice Laws Website — the same Act, sections 9–15 (s. 10: implied consent; s. 11: unsubscribe within 10 business days) — https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-1.6/page-2.html · Read on
Market to the clients who came
A smaller list of people who visited recently is the list that books. Fill in your address and send the first one.