CASL Review Request Rules: Can You Email Canadian Customers for Google Reviews?

A CASL review request is any email or text asking a customer for a Google review that also encourages them to buy from you again. Under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation you can send it to a customer who bought from you in the last two years, provided the message identifies your business, gives a mailing address and offers a free unsubscribe. Asking in person needs none of that.

Often, yes. CASL applies to commercial electronic messages (CEMs), and a review request becomes one as soon as any part of it, including its links and signature, encourages the reader to take part in a commercial activity. A bare request for feedback with no commercial content falls outside the law, but very few real-world review emails are that bare.

The test comes from section 1(2) of the Act: a commercial electronic message is one where, "having regard to the content of the message, the hyperlinks in the message to content on a website or other database, or the contact information contained in the message", it would be reasonable to conclude that one of its purposes is to encourage participation in a commercial activity. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which enforces this part of CASL, says in its FAQ that a logo, a hyperlink or contact details in a signature do not automatically make a message commercial, and that surveys without commercial content are not CEMs. It adds a warning: "you cannot engage in commercial activity under the guise of a survey."

In practice the safe assumption is that your review request is a CEM. A message that says "Thanks for visiting, we'd love a Google review" and nothing else may be non-commercial. Add "book your next appointment", a seasonal offer, a link to your online shop or a "10% off your next visit" line, and one of its purposes is now commercial. Because the burden of proving the message was exempt sits with you, most Canadian businesses find it simpler to build every review request to CASL's standard rather than argue about it later.

Anything that promotes your products or services, prompts a repeat purchase or links to a sales page. The table below sets common elements of a review request against the CRTC's purpose test.

Yes, if the message is a CEM, but for most recent customers consent is already implied. Section 6(1) of CASL prohibits sending a CEM unless the recipient has consented, expressly or impliedly, and section 10(9) says consent is implied where you have an existing business relationship with the recipient.

Section 10(10) defines that relationship. It exists where the customer bought or leased a product, goods, a service, land or an interest in land from you "within the two-year period immediately before the day on which the message was sent", or made an inquiry or application about one "within the six-month period immediately before the day on which the message was sent". A written contract that is still in force, or expired within the last two years, also counts. So a customer who paid for a haircut, a furnace repair or a patio set last month can be asked for a review by email without ticking a box first.

Two cautions. First, the CRTC guidance is clear that "the onus of proving consent, be it express or implied, is on the person who claims they have consent", so your booking records, invoices or POS exports are what prove the relationship. Second, you cannot email someone to ask for consent, because section 1(3) treats a request for consent as a CEM in itself. If you want express consent, collect it at the point of sale, on a booking form or on a sign-up page, with an unchecked box the customer ticks themselves. Express consent does not expire until it is withdrawn, which makes it the better long-term basis for repeat customers.

Three things: a basis for consent, identification of the sender, and a working unsubscribe mechanism. Sections 6(2) and 11 of the Act set the detail, and the CRTC FAQ fills in the timings.

If the message is short on space, such as a text, the CRTC accepts a clearly visible link to a free web page that carries the identification details. Your Google review link is the only other link the message needs. For wording that reads naturally, adapt one of our review request templates and add the Canadian identification and unsubscribe lines.

Yes, on the same terms as email. The Business Development Bank of Canada's CASL guide confirms a text message sent from a cell phone is a CEM "if it encourages participation in a commercial activity".

The practical differences are space and tone. A text still has to identify the sender and offer a way out, which is why most Canadian texts end with the business name and a STOP instruction. Keep the review link short, and never pair the request with an offer. If you send texts in volume, use a messaging service that stores consent records and processes STOP replies automatically, so the 10-business-day deadline is never missed.

The CRTC can impose administrative monetary penalties of up to $1 million per violation for an individual and up to $10 million per violation for a business. Its 2014 enforcement briefing also notes extended liability, including liability for directors and officers.

Three regulators share CASL. The CRTC enforces the rules on sending CEMs. The Competition Bureau enforces the Competition Act against false or misleading representations, which can include misleading subject lines and the fake or undisclosed reviews covered in our guide to the Competition Bureau's fake review rules. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner enforces the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) against address harvesting and collection of email addresses without consent. Canadians can report unwanted messages to the Spam Reporting Centre, and every complaint is a reason to keep your consent records tidy.

Google's rules apply on top of CASL and are stricter on content. Its Maps user-contributed content policy prohibits merchants from offering "incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services" for reviews, and from choosing to "discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers".

That has two consequences for a review request email. The incentive you might be tempted to add to lift response rates is banned by Google and would also make the message commercial under CASL. And a "rate us first" screen that only sends happy customers to Google is review gating, which Google treats as selective solicitation. Send everyone the same message with the same link. Google's Business Profile help page simply says you can ask customers "to visit a Google link or scan a QR code" to leave a review, and that is all a compliant request needs to do. Our overview of Google's review policy covers staff reviews and the other banned practices.

Ask in person, at the moment the service ends, using a printed prompt that opens your review page. CASL regulates electronic messages that you send; a customer who taps or scans a card at your counter has opened the link themselves, so there is no CEM, no consent record to keep and no unsubscribe to manage.

That is why many Canadian shops, clinics and trades keep a physical prompt alongside their email process. A Google review card carries your review link on an NFC chip with an optional printed QR code, arrives pre-programmed for a one-off price with no subscription, and works with a tap on an iPhone or Android. A counter stand does the same job for walk-in customers, and a card on a keyring suits a technician finishing a job at the customer's home. The ask itself still has to follow Google's rules: everyone gets the same invitation, nothing is offered in return, and nobody is told what to write. Our guide to asking customers for reviews naturally has wording for the conversation.

A sensible Canadian set-up combines the two: ask face to face with a card or stand while the customer is with you, and send one CASL-compliant email or text to those you did not catch, within the two-year window and with the identification and unsubscribe lines in place. For related rules in other markets, see our review rules hub.