Aussies who use a thumbs-up emoji in text messages, particularly in business scenarios involving official documents, are being urged to exercise caution after a Canadian court deemed the common emoji to be a valid signature.
In a dispute before a Canadian court in June, the presiding judge said an emoji—in this case, a thumbs-up emoji—can amount to a contractual agreement and ordered a farmer to pay more than US$82,000 for not delivering the product to a grain buyer after the farmer responded to a text message with the commonly used emoji.
According to court documents, the farmer argued that the thumbs-up emoji had been used only to confirm he had received the contract from the buyer and that he would review the contract at a later date. The farmer added that he was not agreeing to the terms of the contract….