A text message is a commercial electronic message under Canadian law, just like an email — and it runs on exactly the same six-month clock.
Short answer
Yes, for up to six months from the form submission. CASL defines an “electronic message” to expressly include “a text, sound, voice or image message”, sent to an electronic address that includes “a telephone account.” A form submission is an inquiry, and CASL’s implied-consent rule for an inquiry lasts six months from the day it was made — the same window that covers a follow-up email.
CASL’s own definitions section is explicit: “electronic message means a message sent by any means of telecommunication, including a text, sound, voice or image message,” and “electronic address” expressly includes “a telephone account” alongside email and instant-messaging accounts. There is no separate, lighter regime for SMS — the same s.6(1) consent requirement applies.
Implied consent arises from “an inquiry … within the six-month period” before the message is sent (s.10(10)(b)). A website contact-form submission is about as clean an example of an “inquiry” as CASL contemplates, so a text within six months of that submission is on solid ground.
The same core rules apply regardless of channel: identify yourself and your brokerage, and give the recipient a way to opt out at no cost, honoured “without delay, and no later than 10 business days”. A single “reply STOP to opt out” line satisfies that requirement for SMS the same way an unsubscribe link does for email.
The implied consent expires exactly as it does for email. A further text needs either express consent or a new interaction — a call answered, a reply received, another form filled — to restart the clock.
The mistake is treating a single old form fill as a permanent green light for an ongoing drip sequence. Each individual text still has to fall inside a live consent window at the moment it is sent — a lead who filled a form eight months ago and never replied again is outside the s.10(10)(b) window, even if earlier texts to them were perfectly compliant.
See also: the identical six-month rule applied to email and a narrower, different kind of implied consent
A 30-minute call is enough to check your opt-out wording and timing line up with CASL.
