Is certified email legally valid for online business transactions and contracts?

No one questions the progress made in the management of commercial agreements and contracts without the need for the parties to physically go to an office or firm. Digital communications simplify and speed up these actions, but their legal validity must be guaranteed.

Certified email provides that legality and security. Therefore, it is a particularly interesting channel for contract management in general. Also, in specific highly regulated business areas, such as the commercial sector, as you can see below.

We emphasize these three aspects:

• Verification of the legal validity of certified emails in the management of contracts and commercial operations.
• In which contractual areas and commercial activities you can benefit from the legal validity guaranteed by certified email.
• Tips to reinforce the legal value of certified e-mails.

This way you can optimize contract management through certified email.

When we talk about the legal validity of a contract or commercial transaction managed through certified e-mails, we mean that it can be used as reliable evidence in case of claims or even presented before a judge. Also, in ADR processes (Appropriate Means of Dispute Resolution).

When there are two parties and a conflict arises, both may give different versions of the same agreement in an attempt to benefit from it. The only way to have an impartial verification is to have an external agent, guarantor of the integrity and security of the relevant communications.

In certified e-mails there is a third party verifier, the Qualified Trust Service Provider, which ensures essential aspects such as:

It confirms the exact date and time of sending, receipt by the recipient. And, of course, it provides a record of the content throughout the process.

The challenge of a commercial agreement contract can occur long after it has been signed. Therefore, we need that guarantee of unalterability of data and content to be extended until the end of its validity or the legal deadlines to make a legal claim.

At MailComms Group, we even perform the notarial deposit, if required.

Business activities always require extreme discretion. The certified email mechanism itself helps to achieve this confidentiality. Without forgetting the strict regulation on security and privacy of digital communications data, regulated in the eIDAS 2 and the RGPD in force in EU territory.

One of the main concerns for the implementation of the digital way as a tool to manage commercial transactions or online contracts is the fear of being a victim of fraud, especially in international operations.

Within the EU, progress is being made towards the digital economy by the digital economy by combating fraud with digital identification tools.

The process of digitalization of the economy is unstoppable, as it is in negotiations and exchanges in any other sector. A progress that is closely linked to the overcoming of national borders, so that these operations are increasingly global in nature.

This activity is unthinkable if there is a mandatory physical presence barrier to ratify these transactions. And here the importance of certified e-mails comes to the fore, which can be used for any of these transactions. Their possible use stands out in:

• Registration or cancellation of delinquent files.
• Operations to contract products.
• Refinancing and credit concessions.
• Claims for unpaid bills, invoices or dues.
• Notifications with customers and suppliers.

The validity as legal evidence of the certified email rests on the verifying role of the Qualified Trusted Service Provider in certified electronic delivery, collects and safeguards the evidence of the communication process, as established in the regulation (EU) 910/2014 eIDAS.

The certifiable events themselves are: sender, delivery (understood as being made available on the destination host) and contents (both of the email and of the attached document).

Discover CertySign, a platform that gives you full control over your certified communications.

In addition, you have at your disposal the electronic signature service. With this added service, two more certifiable events such as viewing and signing would be added.

There are different types of digital signatures, here you can learn more about their differences.

At MailComms Group we are a benchmark for quality, innovation and security as a certified communications service provider. For this reason, we have been the company to receive the NIS2 certification from AENOR.