A thumbs-up emoji counts as a contract agreement

In South West Terminal Ltd. v Achter Land, 2023 SKKB 116, a Canadian Court decided on the meaning of the “👍” emoji with reference to a contract.

Here the plaintiff alleged that they had been communicating contracts through WhatsApp with the defendants who had been confirming the same with messages like “Yup”, “Ok” etc. Finally, they confirmed the disputed contract by sending the “👍” or “thumbs up” emoji. The defendant countered that the emoji was only to acknowledge receipt of the contract.

Rejecting the argument forwarded by the defendant as self-serving, the Hon’ble Judge observed that as per the dictionary, the “👍” emoji is used to express assent, approval or encouragement in digital communications, especially in western cultures. The message sent by the plaintiff also carried the statement “Please confirm flax contract” against which the said emoji was sent by the defendant. The judge decided that on the balance of probabilities that the defendant okayed or approved the contract just like he had done before except this time he used a 👍 emoji.

Finally, the judge held that under these circumstances a 👍 emoji is “an action in electronic form” that can be used to allow to express acceptance as contemplated under The Electronic Information and Documents Act, 2000.

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