E-signatures in commercial contracts in Poland
- Definition and formal requirements of written legal statements or legal statements legally binding if the law requires written form
- Examples for legal statements and contracts where written form is required
- Are there special legal provisions for digital archiving and storage of electronic documents? If yes, please describe them
- Main and relevant court practices
- In which cases are documents only with wet ink signatures accepted?
- List of the relevant national legislation
- Are the following use cases deemed as written legal statements / legal statements legally binding if the law requires written form in your jurisdiction?
jurisdiction
1. Definition and formal requirements of written legal statements or legal statements legally binding if the law requires written form
Commercial contracts qualify as written if they are signed with a handwritten signature. If the contract is in electronic form, it has an equal legal effect to a written legal statement if it is signed with a qualified electronic signature (QES).
2. Examples for legal statements and contracts where written form is required
As a rule, commercial contracts must be in written form only when this is legally required. Among others, examples include: powers of attorney, commercial proxies, leasing agreements, agreements on the acquisition of debt, a statement by a guarantor in a guarantee agreement, agreements on the assignment of economic copyrights, and exclusive licensing agreements.
This means that a QES must be used if the written form is mandatory under the law, i.e. in the aforementioned cases.
However, an AES, SES and other forms of electronic signature can be used for any other commercial contracts where a written form is not required.
3. Are there special legal provisions for digital archiving and storage of electronic documents? If yes, please describe them
N/A
4. Main and relevant court practices
Pursuant to the doctrine and practice of the Polish courts, only documents in an electronic form which are signed with a qualified electronic signature can be deemed legally binding written documents if the law requires a (simple) written form.
5. In which cases are documents only with wet ink signatures accepted?
If the law requires a notarial deed, the contract cannot be signed electronically even with a QES. An example being sale agreements obliging the transfer of ownership, and substantive legal documents granting the right for entry in the land and mortgage register, as well as agreements on easements, pledges, mortgages, usufruct, and cooperative ownership rights to premises, where wet-ink signatures are mandatory.
6. List of the relevant national legislation
- Polish Civil Code of 23 April 1964 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1145)
- Regulation(EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC
- Polish Act of 5 September 2016 on trust services and electronic identification
7. Are the following use cases deemed as written legal statements / legal statements legally binding if the law requires written form in your jurisdiction?
1. Electronic document signed with qualified electronic signature (QES as defined in the eIDAS Regulation) and with a time stamp | Yes |
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2. Electronic document signed with qualified electronic signature (QES as defined in the eIDAS Regulation) without a time stamp | Yes. However, a legal statement signed with a QES and marked wth a qualified electronic time stamp has the legal effect of written form on the certain date. |
3. Electronic document signed with advanced electronic signature (AdES as defined in the eIDAS Regulation) and with a time stamp | No |
4. Electronic document signed with advanced electronic signature (AdES as defined in the eIDAS Regulation) without a time stamp | No |
5. Electronic document signed with advanced biometric signature | No |
6. Electronic document signed with a simple, standard electronic signature (SES) | No |
7. Scanned electronic version of the original paper-based document with handwritten signature sent as an attachment in ordinary e-mail without an electronic signature, but with standard e-mail signature panel | No |
8. Legal statement sent as a text of an ordinary e-mail without an electronic signature, but with a standard e-mail signature panel | No |
9. Legal statement sent in an SMS | No |
10. Electronic document with a copy-pasted image of a handwritten signature, sent as an attachment of an ordinary e-mail | No |
11. Electronic document with the typed name of the signer and sent as an e-mail attachment | No |
12. Electronic legal statement sent in a social-media message sending application (e.g. Messenger, Viber, LinkedIn, Facebook message, etc.) | No |
13. Electronic legal statement sent in a chat application | No |
14. Electronic document created on an electronic platform ensured by the other party requesting the legal statement (without an electronic signature) by another party whom the operator of the platform granted access | No |
15. Electronic document signed in DocuSign/Adobe Sign with a simple standard electronic signature (no QES or AdES) | No |
16. Electronic document signed with a qualified electronic seal as defined in the eIDAS Regulation | No |
17. Agreements accepted by the other party online, by ticking a checkbox or by clicking on a button ("click on agreements") | No |
