Thumbs-up emoji is valid as signature on contract agreement, rules Canadian judge

In a surprise ruling, a Canadian judge stated that the “thumbs-up” emoji can be considered just as valid as a signature. He said the court needs to adapt to the “new reality” of how communication takes place between people and asked a farmer to pay C$82,000 ($61,442), which was part of an unfulfilled contract.

The Court of King’s Bench heard the case in which a mass text message was sent by a grain buyer with South West Terminal to clients in March 2021, which advertised that the company was aiming to purchase 86 tonnes of flax at a price of C$17 ($12.73) per bushel. The incident took place in the province of Saskatchewan.

Kent Mickleborough, who is a buyer, called over farmer Chris Achter on the phone and texted him a picture of a contract which guaranteed delivery of the flax in November. He asked the farmer to “please confirm flax contract” in the message.

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Achter, who resides in the community of Swift Current, responded to the contract by sending a thumbs-up emoji. However, in November, Achter failed to deliver the flax and the prices for the crop had surged by that time.

Dispute over emoji

Mickleborough and Achter got into a dispute over what is the meaning of the emoji. Referring to the previous contacts which were confirmed over a text message, the buyer suggested that the emoji meant Achter was agreeing to the terms mentioned in the contract.

However, Achter claimed that the emoji was an indication of the fact that he has received the contract in the text message.

“I deny that he accepted the thumbs-up emoji as a digital signature of the incomplete contract,” said Achter in an affidavit. “I did not have time to review the Flax Contract and merely wanted to indicate that I did receive his text message," he added.

In between the court proceedings, Achter’s lawyer raised an objection over a cross-examination of his client into the meaning of the thumbs-up emoji, stating that his client “is not an expert in emojis”.

Justice Timothy Keene, who even went on to refer to the definition of the symbol mentioned in dictionary.com, lamented that the case “led the parties to a far-flung search for the equivalent of the Rosetta Stone in cases from Israel, New York State and some tribunals in Canada, etc. to unearth what a 👍 emoji means”.

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“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 stated.

The concerns raised by the defence that permitting the thumbs-up emoji to signify acceptance “would open up the floodgates” to new interpretations of various emojis, including the ‘fist bump’ and ‘hand shake’ were also dismissed by Keene.

In finding that the emoji of thumbs-up can be considered as a signature into contracts, Keene stated the court “cannot (nor should it) attempt to stem the tide of technology and common usage” of emojis. “This appears to be the new reality in Canadian society and courts will have to be ready to meet the new challenges that may arise from the use of emojis and the like," he added.

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