Canadian Court Recognizes👍as a Contract Agreement
As far as we are aware, a Canadian Court has made a first of its kind ruling relating to the acceptance of an emoji as a contract agreement. This is an interesting judgment to illustrate the developments relating to the acceptance of digital ways to approve contracts. It is a great simple ruling explaining how accepting offers digitally can be seen as a valid contract.
What was the court ruling about?
Parties were involved in court because one party (the seller) claimed that the other party (the Buyer) said yes to an agreement. The Buyer did not say ” yes” or ” I agree” and did not sign any contract, but did send a 👍 Emoji to the Seller. The question in court was whether the sending of this emoji can be treated as an agreement. Is this a valid contract?
Even though no contract was signed, the question was if the emoji could be seen as a ” signature” or a ” yes” to the proposed contract. A very unusual request, but on the other hand also a very normal question as the Seller did act on the Emoji as understood it as being a ” Yes”.
In contract negotiations, please agree on the ways the contract will be signed to avoid these issues.
What was the verdict?
The Canadian Court Ruled that a 👍 Emoji Counts as a Contract Agreement. For details, please see https://lnkd.in/gyBrSAdn
The judge stated, amongst others, the following: “This court readily acknowledges that a 👍 emoji is a non-traditional means to ‘sign’ a document but nevertheless under these circumstances this was a valid way to convey the two purposes of a ‘signature’,” he wrote.
Correct decision?
What seems like an unusual verdict, actually makes a lot of sense looking at the facts in this specific case. After talking to each other on the phone, Kent (the Buyer) sends a copy of a contract as an offer to deliver the goods to him via text to Chris. Chris responds with a thumbs up.
Without knowing the full background, this indeed looks like an agreement to enter into a contract (and agreeing to the contents of the contract). At least under Dutch law, depending on the circumstances of the case, this could reasonably be seen as entering into an agreement.
Trend for the future
This is in line with other verdicts in the past years. Valid contracts are formed all the time in digital form. It can be seen as a binding contract if an offer and acceptance are sent in digital form by e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp and other tech solutions like DocuSign etc. It is an important realization for everyone that the digital world is evolving and we need to adapt!
Lesson Learned
Next time you respond with (for example) 🚀 ✅ ✔️👍🏾🙏🏼 to a question or request to agree to an offer, be very mindful of your intentions.