The 'thumbs-up' emoji can indicate that a person has reached an agreement with another, according to a Canadian court decision.
Justice Timothy Keene stated in the Court of King's Bench decision in the province of Saskatchewan that the symbol represented the "new reality in Canadian society" in which individuals must adjust to new forms of communication like hearts, happy faces, and fire emojis.
The decision was made at the outset of a multi-million dollar case involving a dispute between a grain buyer and a farmer who disagreed over the terms of the agreement after the farmer responded to a request from the buyer with a thumbs-up emoji but failed to fulfil his end of the bargain by delivering the grain.
The Judge handed down the verdict on Friday, ordering the farmer to pay the buyer $8.7 million (approximately $61,442) for a contract that was not completed.
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According to the New York Times, he stated, "This court readily agrees that an emoji is a non-traditional means to "sign" a document, but under these circumstances, this was a valid manner to express the two goals of a "signature."
Courts must be prepared to handle new issues using emojis and similar symbols because this is the new reality in Canadian culture.
In March 2021, the buyer, Kent Mickleborough with South West Terminal, allegedly issued a mass text message announcing the company's desire to purchase 86 tonnes of flax for C$17 (Ksh. 1,794) per bushel to clients.
He called a farmer named Chris Achter and texted him a photo of a contract for the delivery of flax in November, asking him to reply and confirm the contract.
Achter answered with a thumbs-up emoji, although he did not deliver the flax in November, and that month's crop prices had risen.
The buyer, Mickleborough, argued that he, at the time, understood that Achter had consented to the conditions of the contract and that the gesture was his means of indicating that consent. The two disagreed over the meaning of the emoji.
The farmer had justified his thumbs-up emoji, claiming that it merely signified that he had received the contract in the text message and did not signify his agreement to its terms.
I contest his assertion that the thumbs-up emoji served as a digital signature for the unfinished contract. In an affidavit, Achter stated, "I did not have time to analyze the Flax Contract and only wanted to indicate that I did get his text message.
