A canadian judge ruled that the thumbs up emoji can be recognized as a valid way to seal a contractequivalent to a signature, as it is a common mode of communication and courts should not “try to stem the tide of technology and common usage”.

‘Emojis’ are used daily communication by instant messaging either via social networks, instant messaging applications or SMS. In this sense, those symbols that imitate everyday gestures such as smiling faces or handshakes become become part of the common language of users.

In this context, a Canadian judge has ruled in a recent case than to send a message with the thumbs up “emoji” can be interpreted as a valid way to seal a contract officially.

In fact, this same judge indicated that, although it is a new method, it is a way “valid” way to convey the purposes of a signature, since it is a common mode of communication and the courts “cannot and should not try to stop the tide of technology”.

This was reflected in the trial summary documents to which this case refers, in which a farmer and a flax buyer face each other for a broken contractand who ended up deciding in favor of the buyer, who will have to receive 82,000 Canadian dollars (about 5,642 euros) from the farmer.

More specifically, the case took place in a King’s Bench Court, in the province of Saskatchewan (Canada) where, according to what has been exposed, a farmer replied with the thumbs-up “emoji” to a message in which a flax purchase contract was sent. He the buyer thought it was a contract validation messagebut the farmer disagrees: “I just wanted to indicate that I received your text message”, he alleged.

As noted, the buyer sent the contract for said purchase via message, followed by the text “confirm linen contract”. After that, the farmer replied with the “emoji”, and there was no longer any interaction between the two. Indeed, the agreed linen was not delivered.

The farmer claimed that the the buyer has not sent you the complete terms and conditions of the contract and, in this sense, understood that the the complete contract will be I will email later. So he sent the ’emoji’ with intent to imply that “he got the message ‘but denies'”that you have accepted the thumbs-up emoji as the digital signature of the incomplete contract”.

However, the case, placed in the hands of the Canadian judge Timothy KeeneHe has settled in favor of the buyersince the “thumb emoji” has been recognized as a means of sealing a contract, as it is a symbol that implies acceptance and is commonly used.

“This court readily acknowledges that an ’emoji’ is a non-traditional way of signing a document, but nonetheless, in these circumstances, it was a valid way of translating the two purposes of a signature and of signifying acceptance of the linen contract”, says the judge.

Thus, regarding its validity as a signature, Keene qualified that the signer can be identified using your unique phone number as a record.

In this regard, the farmer’s lawyer said that by accepting this “thumb emoji” as a form of “identity and acceptance“ The doors are “open” to allow more cases to be presented that require interpretations of the meanings of different “emojis”.

“The courts will be flooded with all kinds of cases if this court determines that the thumbs-up ’emoji’ can replace a signature,” the farmer’s lawyer pointed out. To which Justice Keene clarified that this seems to be “the new reality of Canadian society” and that, therefore, the courts “must be ready to face the new challenges which may result from the use of emojis and the like”.