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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Electronic transactions - Application of legal requirements to electronic transactions - Legal requirement: writing

225: Legal requirements relating to layout and format of certain information and writing materials

You could also call this:

“Rules for paper documents don't apply when using electronic forms”

You don’t need to follow paper-based rules when you’re using electronic means to meet legal requirements mentioned in sections 222 to 224. This means you don’t have to worry about specific layouts or formats that are usually required for paper documents.

A paper-based format requirement is a rule that applies to information on paper or other non-electronic forms. These rules can be about how the information should look, what kind of paper or materials should be used for writing, or any similar rules about the physical form of the information.

This definition of paper-based format requirements is also used in another part of the law, specifically in section 239(1)(b)(ii).

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844472.

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Part 4 Electronic transactions
Application of legal requirements to electronic transactions: Legal requirement: writing

225Legal requirements relating to layout and format of certain information and writing materials

  1. In order to meet a legal requirement to which any of sections 222 to 224 apply by electronic means, it is not necessary to comply with a paper-based format requirement.

  2. In this section and section 239(1)(b)(ii), paper-based format requirement means a legal requirement of the following kind that applies to information in paper or any other non-electronic form:

  3. a legal requirement relating to the format or layout of information:
    1. a legal requirement relating to the materials to be used for writing information:
      1. any similar legal requirement.

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