Sask. court case involving emoji ruled acceptance of contract

By David Zammit

A court case in Swift Current that concluded last month could set the precedent around emojis being used for legally binding contracts.

A contract between the plaintiff, South West Terminal and Achter Land & Cattle Ltd., teh defendant, was said to be completed via text message on the afternoon of March 26, 2021 for the delivery of 87 metric tonnes of flax. The delivery time frame was set for November 1, 2021 and November 30, 2021, but the product never came.

SWT then sued the business, which has a registered office in Swift Current, for $82,200.21 plus interest and costs for breaching the agreement.

In court, SWT said they had sent Achter Land & Cattle Ltd. the contract by text message asking for confirmation, to which the defendant replied with a simple “👍”.

The plaintiff argued the reply was similar to past agreed-upon contracts (from 2020) which received responses such as “Looks good,” “Ok,” and “Yup.” All three of these contracts for durum wheat were fulfilled.

The defendant argued that the emoji answer was to show that the contract was received and not meant to be taken as a confirmation of the deal.

After hearing both sides of the argument Justice T.J. Keene sided with SWT.

“This court readily acknowledges that a “👍” emoji is a non-traditional means to “sign” a document,” Keene ruled. “But nevertheless, under these circumstances, this was a valid way to convey the two purposes of a “signature” — to identify the signatory and as I have found above — to convey Achter’s acceptance of the flax contract.”