Can the “thumbs up” emoji count as binding contract?
According to one Canadian judge…”yes it can be”.
We have a thriving agricultural sector here in the Borderland and this is something that might have easily taken place in our area.
Back in 2021, because of the pandemic, a grain cooperative in Saskatchewan, stopped sending its salespeople out to deal with farmers face-to-face. They were handling contracts by phone or email.
This cooperative claims that they had entered into a deferred delivery purchase contract for almost 90 metric tons of flax, with a farmer that they had previously done business with.
According to court records, a cooperative employee drafted a contract, signed it, took a photo of it on their cellphone and then texted it to this farmer, along with the message “Please confirm flax contract.”
The farmer then texted back a thumbs-up emoji in response.
However, the grain never arrived, prompting the cooperative to sue for breach of contract and insist that the emoji constituted an agreement.
In a deposition, this farmer said…
“I deny that he accepted the thumbs-up emoji as a digital signature of the incomplete contract. I did not have time to review the Flax Contract and merely wanted to indicate that I did receive his text message.”
The farmer says that the full terms and conditions of the Flax Contract were not sent to them, and as far as they understood that the complete contract would follow by fax or email for them to then to review and sign.
The farmer adds that they regularly texted back and forth with this salesperson, and many of their texts were informal.
The judge presiding over this case has sided with the cooperative and the farmer has now been to ordered to pay over 82 thousand dollars in damages.
The judge who has made this ruling says…
“This Court cannot (nor should it) attempt to stem the tide of technology and common usage — this appears to be the new reality in Canadian society and courts will have to be ready to meet the new challenges that may arise from the use of emojis and the like.”
I’m SHOCKED by this!
