Can a thumbs-up emoji seal a contract? A Canadian judge rules 👍

Sending a thumbs-up emoji may now be considered the agreement of a legally binding contract, a Canadian judge has ruled.

The thumbs-up emoji proved pivotal in a case involving farmer Chris Achter of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and a 2021 deal to sell 87 metric tons of flax to grain buyer Kent Mickleborough. Mickleborough signed the contract for the deal and texted a picture of it to Achter and wrote “Please confirm flax contract,” according to court documents. Achter responded to with a thumbs-up emoji.

When Achter did not send the flax to Mickleborough, the grain buyer filed a lawsuit stating he thought Achter’s thumbs-up emoji was an agreement to the contract.

Judge T.J. Keene of the Court of King’s Bench in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, agreed and ruled on June 8 the thumbs-up emoji Achter sent served as an agreement to the contract. Keene ordered Achter to pay Mickleborough $82,200 in Canadian dollars, or $61,000 in U.S. currency.

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Breaking down the meaning of a thumbs-up emoji in court

Mickleborough considered the thumbs-up response to be an agreement between him and Achter because he included the “Please confirm flax contract” text along with the photo of the contract, according to court documents.

“At the time, I understood this to be that Chris was agreeing to the contract and this was his way of (signaling) that agreement,” Mickleborough said.

In contrast, Achter stated in a deposition that he did not intend for the emoji to be a signature or agreement to the contract.

“I confirm that the thumbs-up emoji simply confirmed that I received the flax contract,” Achter said in the deposition. “It was not a confirmation that I agreed with the terms of the Flax Contract. The full terms and conditions of the Flax Contract were not sent to me, and I understood that the complete contract would follow by fax or email for me to review and sign.”

Achter also said he and Mickleborough, who had a business relationship going back to 2015, regularly texted with many of the texts being informal. In the past, Achter had responded to other contracts with phrases like “looks good,” “ok” and “yup,” according to court documents.

“I deny that he accepted the thumbs-up emoji as a digital signature of the incomplete contract,” Achter said in the deposition. “I did not have time to review the Flax Contract and merely wanted to indicate that I did receive his text message.”

Additionally, Achter’s counsel argued that allowing for the thumbs-up emoji to qualify as “identity and acceptance would open up the flood gates to allow all sorts of cases coming forward asking for interpretations as to what various different emojis mean.”

That argument didn’t sway the judge, who said that “a 👍 is a non-traditional means to ‘sign’ a document but nevertheless under these circumstances this was a valid way … to convey Achter’s acceptance of the flax contract.”