Implied consent is CASL’s fallback permission to email or text someone without an opt-in, available only inside a narrow window — a purchase or lease within the two years before you send the message, or an inquiry within the preceding six months — after which the clock runs out and you need express consent instead.
CASL section 10 defines the existing business relationship that implied consent rests on: a purchase or lease of a product, goods, a service, land or an interest or right in land, within the two-year period immediately before the message was sent, or an inquiry or application within the six-month period immediately before the message was sent. A closed deal buys you the long window; a form-fill buys you the short one.
Here is the trap: this is not the same clock the CRTC uses for live telemarketing calls. The Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules run on their own, different windows — a purchase or lease within the preceding 18 months (not CASL’s two years), and an inquiry within the preceding six months (the one number the two regimes happen to share). CASL governs electronic messages; the CRTC’s rules govern phone calls, under a different statute entirely. Treating a lapsed CASL email relationship as still valid for a call, or vice versa, is the single most common way this gets mixed up.
There is a third wrinkle specific to AI: a telemarketer shall not initiate a telemarketing telecommunication via an Automatic Dialing-Announcing Device (ADAD) unless express consent has been provided by the consumer, and an ADAD includes a synthesized or artificial voice. An AI outbound-calling tool used for prospecting is an ADAD for this purpose, and an existing business relationship’s implied consent is not stated as sufficient the way it is for an ordinary live call.
A prospective buyer emails you through a listing page on March 1 asking about the property. CASL’s implied consent lets you email them follow-ups until roughly September 1 without an opt-in. If they instead close a purchase with you in June, your implied-consent window for a general newsletter now extends two years from the June closing — the completed transaction resets the clock to the longer window, replacing the shorter inquiry-based one.
See also: express consent under CASL and meaningful consent under PIPEDA.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell you whether AI pays for itself here.
