Farmer to pay over P3 million fine for using thumbs-up emoji
Emojis are not only for social media—a Canadian court has ruled that they can also count as valid in legal contracts.
According to a report by CNN International, a farmer named Chris Achter from Saskatchewan, Canada was fined $61,000 (over P3 million) for using the thumbs-up emoji after receiving a contract via text.
He, along with another farmer, was asked by South West Terminal, Ltd. if they could buy flax from them for CAD 17 (over P700) per bushel and have them delivered in November 2021.
“Please confirm flax contract,” the SMS message read. According to the documents, Chris replied to it with a thumbs-up emoji at the time.
SWT, however, didn't receive the goods on the agreed delivery date.
Chris argued that he only sent the emoji to acknowledge that he received the contract and not because he agreed with the terms, as stated in the court ruling.
He also admitted that he understood the message that the “complete contract would follow by fax or email for me to review and sign.”
“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. Mr. Mikleborough [sic] regularly texted me, and many of the messages were informal,” he said.
According to SWT representative Kent Mickleborough, this wasn’t the first time that the two parties had a transaction. He said that they had successful ones before where Chris would acknowledge the contract with words like “looks good,” “ok,” and “yup.”
Judge T.J. Keene sided with the SWT, saying that the agreement was “at least verbally struck.”
"I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Chris okayed or approved the contract just like he had done before except this time he used a thumbs-up emoji,” he said.
As stated in a report by The New York Times, Judge Keene cited the definitions of a thumbs-up emoji by Dictionary.com, which indicates that such is “used to express assent, approval or encouragement in digital communications, especially in Western cultures.”
With this, the court ruled that Chris must pay $61,000 (over P3 million) for damage as well as interest and costs for failing to abide by the agreement.