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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

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

228: Presumption about reliability of electronic signatures

You could also call this:

“Electronic signatures are usually trustworthy if they follow certain rules”

When you use an electronic signature, the law assumes it’s reliable enough if it meets certain conditions. These conditions are that only you can create the signature, you’re the only one who controls how it’s made, and any changes to the signature or the information it’s attached to can be detected after you’ve signed.

This assumption about reliability doesn’t stop anyone from trying to prove that an electronic signature is either reliable enough or not reliable enough in other ways. The law allows for this flexibility.

Remember, an electronic signature is like a digital version of your handwritten signature. It’s used to show that you agree with or approve something in electronic documents or transactions.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844476.

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"When you need someone to watch you sign, you can use a digital signature"

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"Keeping paper records safe by turning them into digital files"

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

228Presumption about reliability of electronic signatures

  1. For the purposes of sections 226 and 227, it is presumed that an electronic signature is as reliable as is appropriate if—

  2. the means of creating the electronic signature is linked to the signatory and to no other person; and
    1. the means of creating the electronic signature was under the control of the signatory and of no other person; and
      1. any alteration to the electronic signature made after the time of signing is detectable; and
        1. where the purpose of the legal requirement for a signature is to provide assurance as to the integrity of the information to which it relates, any alteration made to that information after the time of signing is detectable.

          1. Subsection (1) does not prevent any person from proving on other grounds or by other means that an electronic signature—

          2. is as reliable as is appropriate; or
            1. is not as reliable as is appropriate.

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