Indeed Canada Corp. has agreed to pay C$200,000 after a CRTC investigation alleged it kept emailing people who had opted out.
The undertaking took effect on 10 August 2026. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) published it as part of its enforcement of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
According to the CRTC, the alleged conduct ran from 1 February 2025 to 1 February 2026. The regulator says Indeed Canada sent, or caused to be sent, commercial electronic messages to Canadian consumers after they had withdrawn consent. It also says some messages did not consistently include an unsubscribe mechanism that could be readily performed.
Under the undertaking, Indeed Canada will pay C$200,000 to the Receiver General for Canada. It has agreed to review its CASL compliance programme and enhance it where necessary. It has also committed to ensuring that any third party sending commercial electronic messages on its behalf complies with CASL.
The CRTC says Indeed Canada cooperated fully with the investigation.
What an undertaking is
The matter was settled by voluntary undertaking. The CRTC did not issue an administrative monetary penalty, and no court was involved. The regulator describes the conduct as alleged contraventions. The C$200,000 is a negotiated payment, not a fine or a finding of guilt, and readers should treat it as such.
The CRTC uses undertakings to close cases where it believes a violation occurred and the company is willing to settle. Once signed, an undertaking ends the case, and the regulator cannot issue a notice of violation for the same facts.
Why it matters for senders
The allegations describe a familiar failure. A recipient unsubscribes. The request is honoured in one system but not in another, or is honoured late, or the unsubscribe link itself does not work as it should. Mail keeps arriving. The recipient complains.
CASL requires that a withdrawal of consent be given effect without delay, and in any case within ten business days. It also requires that the unsubscribe mechanism be functional and easy to use. A job board with multiple products, alert systems and outsourced senders has plenty of places for a suppression to go missing.
Three points stand out from this case:
- Consent withdrawals must propagate across every system that sends on your behalf, including third parties.
- The unsubscribe mechanism has to work every time, in every message. Inconsistency is enough to attract attention.
- Cooperation and a compliance review reduce the cost of getting it wrong. They do not remove it.
The CRTC’s enforcement record shows a pattern of pursuing established, non-malicious brands for exactly this class of technical failure. Hudson’s Bay Company paid C$120,000 in a similar undertaking over unsubscribe mechanisms. Indeed Canada now joins that list.
