CASL Express vs Implied Consent: What Canadian Dealers Need to Know
Under CASL, consent is not one thing — it comes in two flavours with very different rules and lifespans. Confusing express and implied consent is one of the most common ways dealerships drift out of compliance without ever realizing it. A lead you think you can still email may have quietly aged out months ago. Here is how to tell the two apart and manage both across your database.
Express Consent: The Gold Standard
Express consent is an affirmative, documented opt-in. The customer actively agrees to receive your commercial messages — checking an unchecked box on a form, texting a keyword to subscribe, or signing a clearly worded consent statement. Critically, express consent does not expire on its own. Once you have valid express consent, it stands until the person withdraws it. That permanence is exactly why capturing express consent early is worth the effort: it turns a ticking clock into a durable relationship.
What Makes Express Consent Valid
For express consent to hold up under scrutiny, the request itself must be clean. A buried or pre-ticked opt-in is not valid consent, no matter what the customer clicked:
The opt-in box must not be pre-checked or bundled with the purchase agreement
You must clearly identify who is asking — your dealership by legal name
You must state the purpose: sales offers, service reminders, or marketing
You must give a simple way to withdraw consent later
Implied Consent: Useful but Temporary
Implied consent arises from a relationship rather than a checkbox. The two most relevant to dealers are an existing business relationship (a purchase, lease, or service transaction) and an existing inquiry. The catch is the clock. Implied consent from a purchase or transaction generally lasts 24 months from the date of that transaction, and implied consent from an inquiry generally lasts 6 months. After that window closes, silence means you can no longer send that person commercial messages.
Why the Distinction Matters for Your CRM
A lead who filled out a form seven months ago may have aged out of implied consent, while a buyer from last year is still reachable for another year. If your CRM treats every contact the same, you will either miss legitimate outreach or send messages you cannot legally send. The smartest practice is to convert implied consent into express consent early — ask buyers to opt in at delivery, when goodwill is highest and they are happy to stay in touch about service and future offers.
Document Everything
The CRTC places the burden of proof squarely on the sender. For every contact, record what type of consent you hold, when and how it was obtained, the exact wording used, and when it expires. If you cannot produce that record on request, you effectively have no consent in the eyes of an investigator, regardless of what actually happened at the desk.
This is general information, not legal advice — confirm your consent practices with qualified counsel.
Dabadu Communication AI tags each contact as express or implied, tracks expiry dates automatically, and prompts your team to secure express opt-ins before implied consent lapses.
Use Dabadu Communication AI to automatically classify and time-stamp every consent record, so you never message a contact who has aged out.
