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Legal Aspects

In accordance with the Dutch Civil Code and the eIDAS regulation, electronic signatures are legally recognized and enforceable in The Netherlands.

Scope of Electronic Signatures in the Netherlands

In accordance with Book 3, Article 15a of Dutch Civil Code, an electronic signature will have the same legality as wet ink signatures when its reliability and durability is ensured for disputes in the courts of Netherlands.

Book 6, Article 227a, Article 227b and Article 227c of Dutch civil code provide statutory requirements for an electronic contract to meet the standard for validity legally:

• The use of electronic signatures and electronic contracts should be agreed by both parties.
• The authenticity of electronic contracts should be verifiable.
• The electronic transaction should have authenticatable timestamps.
• The identity of both parties of an electronic contract should verifiable.

Further, as a member of European Union, The Netherlands complies with the eIDAS regulation for electronic signatures.

eIDAS Regulation for Electronic Signatures in The Netherlands

As per the eIDAS regulation, the European Union recognises three types of eSignatures – Simple Electronic Signatures, Advanced Electronic Signatures and Qualified Electronic Signatures.

Considering eIDAS and The Netherlands-specific electronic signature laws, RSign, RMail eSignatures, and RForms are a valid form of legal electronic signature in The Netherlands and standard use of these services fall within the Simple Electronic Signature and Advanced Electronic Signature qualification of the eIDAS regulations. These eSignature services provide a secured electronic signature platform to meet the statutory requirements of electronic signatures in The Netherlands.

RSign, RMail, and RForms eSignatures return a robust forensic audit trail and use cryptography to logically associate and digitally seal the original document sent for eSignature with Internet forensics associated with each signer, the signed copy, and uniform timestamps of each step of the process. The RSign, RMail, and RForms cryptographic seals render the eSign record with its certified electronic signature certificate and/or Registered Receipt™ email record, an authenticable proof record.

RSign has additional identity verification services (to meet the principles of Qualified Electronic Signatures) but these are not ordinarily needed for financial services, human resources, equipment leasing, sales, purchasing, real estate, property management, and other typical business agreements. Generally, a Qualified Electronic Signature is not needed, according to the laws of The Netherlands.

Laws Referenced

The Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek) and eIDAS (electronic Identification, Authentication and Trusted Services).