Current Events > The thumbs up emoji can now be used to sign contracts in Canada Canada

(+) Yeah! (+)

Full story in the article, but the short version is a guy sent a draft contract to another guy via text and asked him to confirm and the guy sent a thumbs up back and the Canadian courts ruled that it was considered a signature.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66124775

Mr. Mickleborough said he spoke with Mr Achter on the phone about his potential purchase, saying he was looking to buy the grain in November that year.

He then texted the farmer a draft of a contract, writing "please confirm flax contract".

Mr Achter responded with a "thumbs-up" emoji, but did not deliver the flax by the date specified.

In a landmark Court of King's Bench ruling released in June of this year, Justice Timothy Keene sided with Mr Mickleborough.

He leaned on a Dictionary.com definition of the emoji, which states that "it is used to express assent, approval or encouragement in digital communications".

"I am not sure how authoritative that is but this seems to comport with my understanding from my everyday use - even as a latecomer to the world of technology," Justice Keene wrote.

Unfortunately, there are contract troll legalistic scumbags who try to imply they agreed to some deal, but then try to break that contract by saying they didn't REALLY agree.

With the courts on this one.

This is dumb, you can't even say what he was assenting to. It could very well be read that he's just agreeing that he will look over the contract and get back to him.

ArchNemo posted...

This is dumb, you can't even say what he was assenting to. It could very well be read that he's just agreeing that he will look over the contract and get back to him.

That was his argument in court:

But according to his sworn affidavit, Mr Achter said the thumbs-up emoji "simply confirmed that I received the flax contract. It was not a confirmation that I agreed with the terms".

ArchNemo posted...

This is dumb, you can't even say what he was assenting to. It could very well be read that he's just agreeing that he will look over the contract and get back to him.

They asked him to confirm. The thumbs up did exactly that.

s0nicfan posted...

That was his argument in court:

Problem is they didnt ask him to confirm receipt of the contract. They asked him to confirm THE contract. Wording matters in legal pretexts.

Are there appeals in Canada? cause this seems like something that gets overturned on appeal. There's just too much ambiguity, you can't "accidentally" consent to a contract. This was a miscommunication plain and simple, and while the farmer may be partly liable for damages caused by his part in the communication, the buyer should have asked for more clarity

daynlokki posted...

Problem is they didnt ask him to confirm receipt of the contract. They asked him to confirm THE contract. Wording matters in legal pretexts.

If it's a contract it should have to be sealed with something more definitive than what is essentially an "ok" in a text message.

"Please confirm flax contract"
"Ok"

Okay what? Okay I will? Okay I agree? A thumbs up emoji is way too vague and can be used to construe too many things to be used as a statement of assent in a contract.

The judge used a dictionary.com definition ffs and admitted he's a "latecomer" to technology.

Even if the plaintiff had locked him down with stronger wording and he had replied with a thumbs up I'd agree.

I mean, if he had said "YOLO" would the judge have went to urban dictionary and said it was an assent because YOLO commonly means throwing caution to the wind and just doing something? It's ridiculous.