Canadian Court Rules Emojis Binding in Contracts A Landmark Judicial Precedent

The Use of Emojis in Contracts: A New Judicial Precedent

Judicial Precedent

In a moment in whose “emoji” has become an essential part of our daily conversation, it seems that its status will evolve even more.

A Canadian court has ruled that the use of emojis is binding in contracts between natural or legal persons.

judicial precedent

And it turns out that a Saskatchewan court recently approved a judicial precedent requiring a farmer to enter into a contract with a cooperative society in to which he used the “thumb” emoji to reply as a sign of his approval, and imposed a settlement of 82,000 Canadian dollars (about 61,000 US dollars), according to the Washington Post newspaper.

The judge, TJ Kane, who ruled on the case, said that thanks to technology, emojis have become a lingua franca for communication and conversation, something the justice system will have to contend with moving forward.

He also noted that this court should not stop the wave of technology and the common use of its technologies, considering that this is the new reality in Canadian society and courts must be ready to face new challenges that can arise from the use of emojis and the like, he said.

“thumbs up”

Interestingly, the origin of the dispute between the farmer and the cooperative dates back to 2020, when it stopped dealing directly with farmers face-to-face during the Corona pandemic and started dealing via remote email.

The two parties concluded a contract for the purchase of his flax crop, during the year 2021, at a price of approximately $500 per ton, as the contract was sent to him signed by the association and his photo was sent to the farmer with a message including “please confirm linen contract” in so that the farmer replied with the expression “inch in on”.

Subsequently, the farmer never delivered the crop, which prompted the association to file a lawsuit against him for violating the contract he had agreed to with the emoji expression.

The farmer said he responded with an “emoji” to express his receipt of the contract and did not sign it.

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from Technology - AsumeTech https://asumetech.com/canadian-court-rules-emojis-binding-in-contracts-a-landmark-judicial-precedent/