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Life of the company
The scanned signature is not sufficient evidence of consent to an obligation
Publié le 15 avril 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
The scanned signature does not identify its author or prove its consent to the obligations arising from the “signed” act. This is what the Court of Cassation said in a judgment delivered on March 13, 2024.
A business goes to court to get individuals to attack the fulfillment of a unilateral promise of sale.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s claims. It held that the unilateral promise of sale could not be fulfilled because the act had been concluded with scanned signatures. The court therefore holds that that method of signature does not make it possible to identify the authors of the signature ‘with certainty’. The applicant business is appealing on a point of law.
The Court of Cassation dismisses the appeal. The scanned signature does not enjoy the same reliability as an electronic signature. It notes that the scanned signature does not identify the author of that signature or prove his consent to the obligations arising from the act.