Be careful before you casually dash off another thumbs-up emoji: A Canadian court has found that the ubiquitous symbol can affirm that a person is officially entering into a contract. The ruling pointed to what a judge called the “new reality in Canadian society” that courts would have to confront as more people express themselves with hearts, smiley faces and fire emojis – even in serious business dealings or personal disputes.
The case questioned whether a farmer in Saskatchewan had agreed to sell 87 metric tonnes of flax to a grain buyer in 2021. The buyer had signed the contract and texted a photo of it to the farmer, who had responded by texting back a “thumbs-up” emoji.
The farmer, Chris Achter, contended that the “thumbs-up emoji simply confirmed that I received the flax contract”. He said he had understood the text to mean that the “complete contract would follow by fax or email.” The grain buyer, Kent Mickleborough, pointed out that when he had texted the photo of the contract to Achter’s cellphone, he had written, “Please confirm flax contract.” So when Achter replied with a thumbs-up emoji, Mickleborough said he had understood that Achter “was agreeing to the contract”.
In coming to his decision, Justice T.J. Keene cited the dictionary.com definition of the thumbs-up emoji: “used to express assent, approval or encouragement in digital communications.” “I am not sure how authoritative that is but this seems to comport with my understanding from everyday use – even as a late comer to the world of technology,” he wrote
Achter’s lawyer warned that allowing a thumbs-up emoji to signify agreement to a contract would “open up the flood gates” to all sorts of cases asking to define the meaning of other emojis. Laura Little, a law professor, called the decision “a remarkable sign of the new world of communication when an emoji can work to snap the trap of creating a contract.”
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