Canadian court recognizes emoji as legal signature in contract – Kommersant

Judge of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan decidedthat the emoji “everything is in order” (palm with thumbs up) is a legal assurance of the contract and ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff more than 61 thousand Canadian dollars for non-performance of the contract. “The Court accepts that the ‘okay’ emoji is not a traditional way of signing a document, but in the circumstances it was a legitimate way of expressing the purposes of a regular signature,” Judge Timothy Keaney said in the decision.

The trial concerned a conflict that occurred in March 2021. Wholesale grain buyer Kent Mickleborough, having decided to buy flax, spoke on the phone with one of the potential suppliers of flax Chris Achter and sent him a photo of the contract for the supply of flax in November. At the same time, he asked to “confirm the contract for flax.” The supplier responded to this with an “everything is fine” icon. In November, having received no flax, Mr. Mickleborough sued the supplier, because by that time the price of flax had risen significantly.

In court, the plaintiff insisted that he had repeatedly received confirmation of contracts in this way and that all deliveries were made on time. In his opinion, the “everything is all right” emoji in Mr. Achter’s answer meant precisely confirmation and agreement. The defendant also stated that the badge meant only confirmation of receipt of the text of the contract, but not consent to it.

The court ultimately sided with the plaintiff, not sharing the concerns of the defendant’s lawyers that this decision “will cause a wide stream” of new interpretations of other emoji, including the “fist-to-fist” or “handshake” greeting. According to the judge, the court “cannot (and should not try) to stop the development of technology and the widespread use” of emoji. “This appears to be a new reality for Canadian society, and courts must be prepared to face the new challenges that can be thrown by the use of emoji and the like,” the judge said when making the decision.

Alena Miklashevskaya