Every commercial email needs the sender's business name, a current mailing address, one other way to make contact and an unsubscribe that works, in every template, including messages sent from Outlook.

The part nobody reads

The footer is the small grey text at the bottom of a newsletter: a business name, an address, a link to unsubscribe. Most readers never look at it.

Canada's anti-spam law does. Under CASL, a commercial email, one meant to encourage the reader to buy, book or hire something, must say who sent it, give a way to reach them and offer a way to stop.

The newsletter template usually gets this right, because the email platform insists. The gaps are elsewhere: the second template made two years ago, the automated welcome email nobody has opened since setup, and the offers staff send from Outlook.

What follows is general information about those requirements, not legal advice.

What the footer has to carry

The third is the one that goes stale. Businesses move and templates do not, and the law expects contact details that still work for at least 60 days after each message is sent.

An unsubscribe that works

The unsubscribe has to be easy to use. In practice that means one click to a page that confirms it, or a reply with the word unsubscribe, with no login, password or account needed.

It must be honoured within 10 business days, and the link or reply address must stay valid for a minimum of 60 days from sending.

A preferences page is fine, provided it lets someone leave all your emails in one step as well as choosing among them.

A link that leads to an error page, or to a sign-in screen, does not meet the requirement, however neat the rest of the footer looks.

Templates you forgot you had

Commercial email rarely comes from one place. A typical small business sends it from the newsletter platform, an automated welcome series, the online store's reminder emails, the booking system, and the mailboxes of everyone on staff.

Each of those has its own footer, set up at its own time by whoever was handling it then. Changing the address in one does not change it in the others.

So the first job is a list: every system that sends email to customers, and the most recent message from each.

Emails sent from Outlook

The newsletter platform adds an unsubscribe link automatically. Outlook adds nothing.

An offer sent from a staff mailbox to a group of past customers is commercial email under the same rules. It needs the same identification and a way to opt out.

The signature can carry the business name, mailing address and main phone number. The unsubscribe can be one sentence inviting a reply with the word unsubscribe, provided someone actually acts on those replies.

A reply to a customer's own question is generally exempt. A follow-up offer they did not ask for is not.

A worked example

A document shredding company serving offices, clinics and law firms sends a monthly newsletter to business customers and, twice a year, an announcement of a community shred day for households.

The newsletter footer was in order. The shred day template, copied from an older one, still gave the address of a depot the company left three years ago.

The larger gap was in Outlook. The two account managers emailed offers for one-time purge jobs to past customers from their own mailboxes, with signatures giving a name, a mobile number and nothing else.

The office manager wrote one footer and used it everywhere: company name, current mailing address, main phone number, website and an unsubscribe line. The account managers' signatures gained the address and a sentence inviting a reply with unsubscribe.

Once a quarter, the office manager now opens the latest email from each system and clicks its unsubscribe link with a test address, to confirm it still works.

A business run from home

Many small businesses run from a home office, and owners understandably do not want their home address at the bottom of every newsletter.

The law asks for a mailing address that works, not a home address. A post office box or a mailbox at a business centre is generally accepted, provided post sent there actually reaches you.

Keep it current, too. A box closed when the business moved is as stale as an old street address.

When someone sends on your behalf

If an agency, a franchisor or a partner sends email for your business, the footer has to identify both: the business sending it and the one it is sent for, with a statement saying which is which.

Check those emails as carefully as your own. They often go out on someone else's template, with an address and an unsubscribe link set up by people who have never tested them on your behalf.

Clear enough to find

The regulations ask for this information to be set out clearly and prominently. Pale grey text in a tiny size, or an unsubscribe link hidden inside an image, works against that.

Write the footer as text, at a readable size, with the link labelled unsubscribe rather than something vague.

Where it is not practical to fit everything in the message, a clear link to a web page carrying the details is allowed.

The counter-case

Not every email needs the full treatment. Messages that only answer a question someone asked, confirm an order, send an invoice or deliver a quote they requested fall under different rules, and some are exempt from parts of CASL.

A business that sends only those, and never a promotion, has much less to check.

The footer is also only part of the law. Consent is a separate requirement, and a perfect footer does not make an email to people who never agreed to receive it acceptable.

For everything else, one complete footer belongs in every template, Outlook included.

The check

  1. List every system that sends your email.
  2. Open the latest message from each one.
  3. Confirm the name, address and contact are current.
  4. Click every unsubscribe link yourself.
  5. Add the footer to Outlook signatures.
  6. Choose a mailing address you are happy to publish.
  7. Recheck every template whenever the business moves.

Step four is the one hardly anyone does. An unsubscribe link is set up once and never clicked by anyone at the business, so nobody notices when it stops working.

Keeping the list itself healthy is covered in bounces and dead addresses on the list.

Frequently asked questions

What must a CASL email footer include?

The business name, the sender if different, a current mailing address, one more way to get in touch, and a working unsubscribe. Treat this as a general summary, not legal advice.

Do emails sent from Outlook count?

Yes, if they are commercial. An offer sent to past customers from a staff mailbox needs the same footer as a newsletter. Replies to a customer's own question are generally exempt.

How quickly must an unsubscribe be honoured?

Within 10 business days. The link or reply address must also stay valid for a minimum of 60 days from the day the email went out.

Can unsubscribing require a login?

It should not. The mechanism has to be readily performed, which in practice means a single click or a reply, without a password or an account.

Do I have to show my home address?

No. The law asks for a valid mailing address, and a post office box or a business mailbox is generally accepted, provided post sent there reaches you.

Does a good footer make an email legal?

Not on its own. Consent is a separate requirement, so a perfect footer on an email to people who never agreed to receive it does not fix that.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Not sure which systems send your email?

Send us a list of what you use. We will find every footer and check each one against CASL.

Start a Conversation