(Wines&Vines) - The team is currently traveling Europe looking for teams, investors and exposure, and has so far held pitching events in London, Munich, Venice, Lausanne and Provence. The program will kick off in September, and 33entrepreneurs has already found startups covering everything from anti-counterfeiting to digital wine menu Canadian wineries and other business across the nation have been emailing their customers in the hopes they will “opt-in” to continue to receive emails about special offers, events and new products.

The flurry of emails is the result of a new anti-spam law that will go into effect Tuesday, which is also the national holiday Canada Day. The law stipulates that companies must secure permission from consumers prior to sending them emails. While U.S. anti-spam law is based on an “opt-out” premise that puts the onus on consumers to notify companies if they don’t want to receive marketing materials, the Canadian law is more stringent in that it requires companies to ask permission first.

Hoping consumers ‘opt-in’

Ironically, the new anti-spam law has resulted in email boxes getting filled up with notices from companies seeking to hold on to those populating their email lists. When Wines & Vines reached Sandra Oldfied, the president and CEO of Tinhorn Creek Vineyards in Oliver, B.C., last week, she mentioned she had gone through about a dozen such emails herself.

Oldfied said the winery had sent out its own opt-in email, but she wasn’t too worried that the new law would interfere with the winery’s growing direct-to-consumer sales. “I’m not any more concerned about it than anyone else in Canada,” she said. “Whatever ends up happening, you find the new dynamic of working with it.…I just know that it’s kind of one of those things when everyone has to do it at the same time, everyone adjusts to the new normal after that.”

Canada’s anti-spam legislation (or CASL) also applies to text messages and software (such as spyware and malware) sent via spam emails. The law will be enforced with fines from $1 million to $10 million (all prices Canadian) after a 36-month transition period. Electronic messages need to clearly identify the sender and include the sender’s contact information as well as have an unsubscribe function. s.