Do not hand over or swap customer lists. Each business writes to its own list about the other, with its own name and unsubscribe, and customers who want the partner's news sign up with the partner directly.

A handshake over the counter

The owner of a coffee shop and the owner of the bike shop next door have shared customers for years. Over coffee one morning they agree on a joint promotion for the fall.

Each has a newsletter list from a sign-up sheet at the counter and a form on its website. The plan: swap lists, and each writes once to the other's customers.

It sounds like good neighbourliness. Under Canada's anti-spam law and the privacy laws, it is two problems at once, and neither business needs the swap to get what it wants.

What each customer agreed to

A customer who signed up at the coffee shop gave it an address for its news. That was the purpose of the sign-up, and the sheet or form probably said so.

Nothing in it mentioned the bike shop. The customer may like that shop, may never have been inside it, or may have reasons of their own to stay off its list.

Consent of this kind belongs to the business that asked for it. It does not travel with the list when the list changes hands.

Two problems in one swap

A list swap creates trouble on both sides of the trade:

The first two are legal questions. The last three are practical reasons a careful owner would avoid the swap even if the law said nothing.

What the privacy laws say

A customer's email address, with a name beside it, counts as personal information. Using it for a new purpose, or giving it to someone else, generally needs the customer's consent first.

PIPEDA, the federal law, covers many businesses. A few provinces also run their own privacy laws for businesses, and which law reaches a particular shop depends on its location and on how it handles the information.

Handing a list to a neighbour for its marketing is a use these laws expect customers to agree to first, and the sign-up sheet did not ask.

What the anti-spam law adds

Since July 1, Canada's anti-spam law has required consent before a business sends commercial email. Consent can be express, given by signing up, or implied, for example by a recent purchase.

Both kinds attach to the business the customer dealt with. The coffee shop may write to people who bought from it; the bike shop has no relationship with them at all.

A message from the bike shop to the coffee shop's list is sent without consent, whoever supplied the addresses. Every message must also identify its sender and carry a working unsubscribe.

This is a plain outline of how the rules work, and no substitute for legal advice on a specific promotion.

How it looks from the inbox

A customer who gets a newsletter from a shop she never signed up with wonders how it found her. Her first guess is usually the business she did give her address to.

That guess costs the coffee shop more than the bike shop. Its customers trusted it with an address, and the swap shows them how that trust was spent.

A joint promotion without the swap

The promotion the two owners wanted is still possible. Each business writes to its own list about the other, as its own message, under its own name, with its own unsubscribe link.

The coffee shop's newsletter can feature the bike shop's fall tune-up; the bike shop's can feature the coffee shop's autumn drinks, each with an offer for the other's customers.

Each feature links to the partner's own sign-up page. Customers who want the neighbour's news can join that list themselves, and the neighbour then holds consent of its own from each of them.

A worked example

A wallpaper store on a neighbourhood shopping street sells papers and murals to homeowners and designers. Next door is a shop that makes custom curtains and blinds.

The two owners planned a joint promotion for fall renovations and agreed to exchange their newsletter lists. The wallpaper store's manager, preparing the export, read the store's own sign-up form first.

The form promised news and offers from the store, and nothing more. She raised it before anything was sent, and the owners changed the plan.

Each store's next newsletter carried a feature about the other, written by the partner and sent by the list's owner. Each feature had its own offer code and a link to the partner's sign-up page.

A small card in each store's bags described the other's offer. Every message now comes from the business the reader chose, and anyone who wants the neighbour's news chooses it directly.

Offer codes and a fair measure

An offer code for each partner shows how many customers came from the other business, without a single address changing hands.

The codes also keep the arrangement honest over time. Partners who can see what each feature produced can decide calmly whether to run another.

The counter-case

Some partnerships collect addresses together from the start. A joint sign-up form that names both businesses, with a separate box for each, gives each one consent from the people who ticked its box.

Two shops under one owner, with one sign-up form naming both, are in a similar position. What matters is what the person agreed to when they gave the address.

For lists already gathered under one business's name, though, the answer stays the same. The neighbour gets a feature in your newsletter, not a copy of your list.

Promoting the neighbour properly

  1. Read the wording on your own sign-up forms.
  2. Keep each list with the business that collected it.
  3. Agree on the features each will write for the other.
  4. Send each feature from the business that holds the list.
  5. Give each partner offer its own code.
  6. Link to the partner's own sign-up page.
  7. Use a separate box for each business at joint events.

Step six is how each shop gains readers of its own from the other's list. A reader who signs up on the partner's page gives the partner consent directly, recorded with a date and a source like any other sign-up.

Consent records to gather before CASL starts spells out what to keep on file for each address on your list: its source, the date it arrived and the basis for writing to it.

Frequently asked questions

Can two businesses swap their customer email lists?

Not safely. The customers gave their addresses to one business for its own news, and the other business has no consent of its own to email them.

Does the anti-spam law cover a partner's message?

Yes. A commercial email from the partner needs consent to hear from that partner, and consent given to the business that collected the address stays with it.

How can we promote a neighbouring business instead?

Write about it in your own newsletter, sent by you to your own list with your own unsubscribe, and link to the neighbour's own sign-up page.

Is sharing a list also a privacy question?

Yes. An email address is personal information collected for a purpose. Giving it to another business for its marketing is a new use the customers never agreed to.

Can we collect addresses jointly at an event?

Yes, if the form names both businesses and offers a separate box for each. Each business then has consent from the people who ticked its box.

How do we know whether the promotion worked?

Give each partner's offer its own code. Each business counts the redemptions it receives and reports them, without either one seeing the other's list.

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.

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