Why Scanned Signatures May be Contested: Important Court Ruling Explained

2024-04-14 06:55:23

A scanned signature may be contested in certain cases. It is therefore a question of being wary of it. Example with this judgment of the Court of Cassation.

The scanned signature has no value an electronic signature and can be contested, ruled the Court of Cassation. The signature scanned and then affixed to a document should not be confused with the electronic signature which benefits from a presumption of reliabilityshe remembers. Le Figaro also wrote that the electronic invoice, an imperative resulting from the 2020 Finance Law, must be implemented for everyone from September 1, 2026.

The value of a promise depends on the reliability of a signature

The electronic signature is based on a reliable digital certificate which allows the secure identification of its author and prohibits subsequent modification. The case concerned a file concerning a promise to sell shares. The conditions of sale having been met, a buyer asked the partners to honor their commitment and transfer their shares to him as they had promised.

The promise is not valid, the signatories argued, because the signatures were scanned and this does not allow the authors to be identified with certainty. They do not make it possible to verify that the supposed authors of the signatures have personally consented to the use of their signatures or that they have given instructions, or at least their agreement, for their signatures to be affixed to this promise.

Reliable identification process

The electronic signature is secure until proven otherwise, according to the law, because an electronic signature must use a reliable identification process which guarantees the identity of the signatory and the integrity of the act he signed, explains the Civil Code. But this is not the case with the scanned signature, the judges ruled. Even if this process is valid, according to them it does not have the presumption of reliability of the electronic signature.

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