Know who you may contact

Separate appointment messages from marketing, and let the recorded consent decide who receives a campaign.

1 min read · Updated August 28, 2026

In short

  • Appointment messages carry out the service the client requested.
  • Promotional messages require consent and a way to unsubscribe.
  • Unknown consent and imported addresses do not count as consent.

Canada's anti-spam legislation treats a promotional message differently from a message that only completes or confirms a transaction the client requested.

Appointment messagesPromotional messages
  • Confirmations, reminders and changes
  • Payment or account notices
  • No added offer or invitation
  • Require consent before sending
  • Include a way to unsubscribe
  • Stop after the client unsubscribes

Appointment messages

  • Confirmations, reminders, changes and notices about a payment or account carry out the service the client asked for.
  • Do not add an offer or invitation to a service message to get around the marketing rules.

Promotional messages

  • The law requires consent before a promotional message is sent, plus an unsubscribe method in every message.
  • Unknown consent is not consent. Record a client as consented only when you can support that choice.
  • If a client unsubscribes, campaigns stop reaching them. You cannot reverse a client's own unsubscribe; the client must choose to subscribe again.
  • Importing a contact list does not turn its addresses into consent. Use the consent choice in the import only when it matches what those clients actually agreed to.

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