A Canadian judge declared that the "thumbs-up" emoji is just as acceptable as a signature, noting that courts must adapt to the "new reality" of how people interact as he ordered a farmer to pay C$82,000 ($61,442) for an “unmet” contract.
A grain buyer with South West Terminal sent a bulk text message to clients in March 2021, claiming that the firm was wanting to acquire 86 tonnes of flax at a price of C$17 ($12.73) per bushel, according to a recent case tried by the Court of King's Bench in the province of Saskatchewan, reports The Guardian.
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Kent Mickleborough, the buyer, called farmer Chris Achter and texted an image of a contract for flax delivery in November, requesting the farmer to "please confirm flax contract" in the message, it said.
Achter reacted with a thumbs-up emoji. However, Achter did not deliver the flax until November, by which time agricultural prices had risen.
The interpretation of the emoji is disputed by Mickleborough and Achter. The buyer cited past contracts verified through text message, implying that the emoji suggested Achter was consenting to the contract's conditions.
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But, according to Achter, the emoji just showed that he had received the contract by text message. “I deny that he accepted the thumbs-up emoji as a digital signature of the incomplete contract,” Achter said. “I did not have time to review the Flax Contract and merely wanted to indicate that I did receive his text message.”
At one point during the trial, Achter's lawyer objected to a cross-examination about the meaning of the thumbs up, claiming his client "is not an expert in emojis."
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Justice Timothy Keene remarked 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