The federal government’s proposed “Do Not Email” legislation may ban legitimate client email communications, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada warned Friday.

“While the proposed legislation would control spam and fraudulent email, an unintended consequence may be the banning of legitimate email communications where prior consent has not been obtained,” says Jon Cockerline, IFIC’s director of policy-dealer issues.

In April 2009, the Canadian Government introduced the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (“ECPA”) – Bill C-27. The ECPA is designed to create an electronic communications framework that would curtail the amount of spam and fraudulent electronic communication Canadian consumers receive.

In it’s official response to the proposed legislation, IFIC says it fully supports the recommendations that are outlined in Sections 7 and 8 of the bill prohibiting the alteration of transmission data and the unauthorized installation of computer programs on another’s computer.

IFIC also supports the proposed amendments to the Competition Act to prohibit misleading commercial emails and to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act regarding the use of emails collected through selected computer programs.

Cockerline adds, “While we are supportive of the general intent of Section 6 with regard to unsolicited commercial emails, we believe that a number of changes in the drafting of this Section are required to balance the need to protect individuals and businesses from unwanted emails with the need for legitimate businesses to be able to provide responsible communication about products and services to their markets, including their clients.”

IE