On November 14, 2024, the Ministry of Digital Affairs amended and promulgated the Enforcement Rules of the Electronic Signatures Act (the “Enforcement Rules”). The key amendments are as follows:
The electronic signature certificates with the following assurance levels are presumed to have the same effect as personally signed or stamped signatures.
According to article 6 of the Electronic Signatures Act, a digital signature supported by a certificate issued by accredited certification institutions has the same effect as personally signed or stamped signatures. In accordance with the amended article 9 of the Enforcement Rules, for certificates issued by a certification authority, the assurance level of their identification and authentication procedures in the initial registration of users must be equivalent to one of the following assurance levels:
- Level “High” or above in ISO/IEC 29115;
- Level “IAL2” or above in NIST Special Publication 800-63A Digital Identity Guidelines (U.S.);
- The eID assurance level “Substantial” or above in the EU eIDAS Regulation.
In other words, in the event the assurance level of a certificate issued by accredited certification institutions is not equivalent to one of the above assurance levels, the electronic signature will not be presumed to have the same effect as personally signed or stamped signatures.
Definitions of “reasonable manner” and “reasonable period” in article 5 of the Electronic Signatures Act
According to article 5 of the Electronic Signatures Act, for documents or signatures involving a counterparty, unless the counterparty has consented to the use of electronic forms, the counterparty should be given a reasonable period and method to object before adopting the electronic form. The counterparty shall be informed that if no objection is raised, the counterparty will be presumed to consent to the use of the electronic form.
According to the amended article 8 of the Enforcement Rules, unless otherwise agreed by the parties or dictated by customary practice, a “reasonable manner” refers to verbal words, in writing, or other means that can effectively make the information known or available to the counterparty. A “reasonable period” must be no less than three days after the counterparty has been informed.
