Electronic signature law in commercial contracts in Peru

In accordance with Peruvian legislation, when the statement of intent (i) must comply with a required formality ; or (ii) requires a signature in written form, it must be generated or communicated through electronic, optical or any other similar means.

Moreover, in relation to the signature, our legislation provides the possibility to use an electronic signature. This type of signature has the same legal validity and effectiveness as a handwritten signature. 

For an electronic signature to be valid, it must comply with the following: (i) authenticate the electronic document, (ii) guarantee the integrity of the electronic document, and (iii) bind and identify the signatory. If it does not comply with these requirements, the electronic signature would not be valid nor effective.

Please note that the electronic signature and digital signature are different. For more information, please review the comment 1 of the Remarks/Comments to use cases section.

• Mortgage, pledge
• Assignment of contract position
• Supply agreement
• Donation
• Bond
• Option agreement
• Sale and purchase agreements
• Labor agreements
• Financial agreements
• Shareholders meetings

Yes. Legislative Decree No. 681 and its Regulations provides special legal provisions for digital archiving and storage of electronic documents through microforms. These microforms allow the images of the digitized documents to have the same evidential value as a paper document. Furthermore, microforms must be proved by a "public faith officer". Also, the technical procedures used in the production of microforms and their duplicates are: (i) that the microforms reproduce the original documents with absolute fidelity and integrity; (ii) that the microforms obtained comply with the following qualities: durability, unalterability and fixity that are superior to or at least similar to the original documents; (iii) that the duplicates are content reproductions that are exactly the same as the original microforms and have similar characteristics; and (iv) that the microforms and their duplicates can be recovered in an exact manner from the original document.

According to Administrative Resolution No. 133-2020-CE-PJ,  judiciary proceedings, allows the filing of judicial writings with or without digital signatures (a type of electronic signature). Depending on the Judicial District, the following specialties are covered: civil, administrative, constitutional, labour, civil family, criminal family, among others.

The parties must file the judicial documents with digital signatures according to the established procedure. However, the parties may also submit documents without a digital signature (only with some forms of electronic signature other than the digital signature). For this, the corresponding handwritten signature must be placed at the foot of the document and the document will be scanned in PDF.

These documents are subject to a subsequent verification by the Judge of the identity of the signatory, if necessary.

As mentioned above, when it is required to sign a document to comply with the statement of intent, this can be done by means of a wet ink signature or an electronic signature. There is no restriction for any legal document to only be signed with a handwritten signature. However, the parties to a contract may agree that the document be signed by handwritten signature for greater legal certainty.

• Digital Signatures and Certificates Law, Law No. 27269;
• Digital Signatures and Certificates Regulation, Supreme Decree 052-2008-PCM;
• Legislative Decree No. 681, standards regulating the use of advanced technologies for documents storage and information, both in respect of those produced conventionally and those produced by computer processes; 
• Legislative Decree No. 681 Regulation, Supreme Decree 009-92-JUS; and
• Civil Code

7.1 Remarks/Comments to use cases (if yes/no answer is not sufficient)

1. According to Peruvian legislation, an electronic signature is any symbol based on electronic means used or adopted that can bind and identify the signatory and ensure the authentication and integrity of electronic documents.  Therefore, an electronic signature shall: (i) authenticate the electronic document, (ii) guarantee the integrity of the electronic document, and (iii) bind and identify the signatory, otherwise it is not an electronic signature. On the other hand, a digital signature is an electronic signature that uses an asymmetric cryptographic technique based on a unique key pair associated with a mathematically related private key and public key. In this case, there is a numerical value that is assigned to the data message and thus provides a further guarantee of signatory non-repudiation in the electronic document. 

2. An advanced electronic signature, as detailed in the eIDAS Regulation, is similar to an electronic signature under Peruvian law.The advanced electronic signature, has four requirements which are stated under Article 26 of the eIDAS Regulation. These statements are as follows: i) to be uniquely linked to the signatory; ii) enable the signatory to be identified, iii) it must have been created using electronic signature creation data that can be used by the signatory at a high level under its exclusive control; and iv) be linked to the data signed by it in such a way that any subsequent change in the data is detectable.The aforementioned requierements are equivalent to the requirements of an electronic signature under Peruvian law. Furthermore, a qualified electronic signature considered as an advanced electronic signature created by a qualified creation of electronic signature; and which is based on a qualified electronic signature certificate, would be considered a digital signature under Peruvian law. 

3. According to Peruvian legislation, the digital signature is valid if it is issued by a certification entity, which is approved by the Official Electronic Signature Infrastructure (IOFE) of Indecopi. This law does not prohibit the use of other digital signature in which case the validity of the agreement will be determined by the parties.  

4. According to the Peruvian Civil Code, any electronic signature will be valid if (i) the signatory is a capable agent, (ii) the legal document object is physically and legally possible, (iii) the legal document has a lawful purpose and (iv) the legal document complies with the form indicated in the law under nullity penalty.

5. It does not comply with the signatory's identification, therefore it is not an electronic signature.