cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1255003
A Canadian judge has ruled that the popular “thumbs-up” emoji not only can be used as a contract agreement, but is just as valid as an actual signature. The Saskatchewan-based judge made the ruling on the grounds that the courts must adapt to the “new reality” of how people communicate, as originally reported by The Guardian.
deleted by creator
Can you even imagine a precedent that said that implied contracts are not valid would have? Trips to the supermarket would be hilarious.
Why? You pay before taking your things.
Now if you wanted to argue that in a restaurant, after having eaten the food, then it might be mildly interesting.
A lot of people don’t understand that there is nothing magical about a written contract with a signature. If you agree to something you have a contract. It doesn’t matter if it is written, spoken, gestured or anything else. Written contracts with signatures are often preferred because it is very clear that there was an agreement and what was agreed to. But just about any method of agreeing is just as binding.
Like you said, written contracts lack vagueness. The interaction leading to the Thumbs Up was pretty damn vague. Validates my refusal to ever use emojis.
Have you read the article? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/06/canada-judge-thumbs-up-emoji-sign-contract. I think that the thumbs up was actually pretty clear in this case. He had a history of accepting contracts which had already been discussed verbally with a short text like “Ok” or “Looks good”. It seems very likely that “👍” meant the same thing.
Emoji doesn’t have anything to do with it. The fact is that he was responding to a legal agreement informally. There is really no difference between “Looks good” and “👍”. This is only a story because he tried to weasel out when the price shot up.
Yes. The fact that an emoji was ever an acceptable acknowledgement bothers me.
I will be sure to get off your lawn. 👍
deleted by creator
TLDR: Farmer agrees to sell some flax in the future at a fixed price, by responding “👍” to “please confirm flax contract”. Later, as the market price of flax went up, the farmer demands more money. They buyer then goes to court to force the farmer to sell the flax at the agreed price, judge rules that the “👍” does count as agreement.
This is a contract that was made several times previously, with similar informal agreements like “ok”, but this time the farmer tried to get out.
🤟
next up, cancel a contract by sending a 💩
👎
👍
So is saying yes.
If the question asked was “do you agree to the contract?” and the farmer answered “👍”, then yeah I can see it. But if the question asked was “have you received the contract?”, then this ruling is bullshit. Unfortunately the article doesn’t have enough information either way.
This article references another article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/06/canada-judge-thumbs-up-emoji-sign-contract
Apparently the message was an image of the contract and “please confirm flax contract”. Seems like the most likely interpretation of the 👍 is agreeing to the contract, not confirming receipt.
Ah, well then yeah he should have been more explicit, or simply not replied.
👍
You’ve just agreed to buy Twitter. Sorry.
🤞🏼
Maybe it’s just me but I see a thumbs up as sarcastic more than sincere. Like an “ok buddy, whatever you say”.
So this is some lowest level local judge, right?
