eSignature Legality Summary
eSignatures are legally valid and admissible in the court of law. Uruguay follows an Tiered model where e-signatures can be submitted in the court. Specific use cases are indicated in the Electronic Signatures and Records Act (ESRA). Under Article 1252 of the Uruguayan Civil Code, a written signature is not necessarily required for a valid contract - contracts are generally valid if legally competent parties reach an agreement, whether they agree verbally, electronically or in a physical paper document. To substantiate the validity of a contract, parties sometimes have to present evidence in court.
*The information on this site is "AS IS" and for general information purposes only.General Business Use (Yes)
Whilst 100% legal; there are exceptions for very specific types of transactions. It is still up to the discretion of the independent user, or governing body, whether they are used or not. As each business needs are different and the agreements themselves may vary. We always advise you to speak with an authority within your businesses category.
Court-Admissible (Yes)
Each country has its own regulations that determine whether an electronic signature is seen as legal or not. So, as long as your electronic signature adheres to these, a signature won't be rejected simply for not being handwritten.
e-Signature Legal Model (Tiered)
Uruguay’s legal model is a tiered one. This means that Qualified Electronic Signatures are seen as a legal type of e-signature. This doesn’t mean that a non-QES e-Signature can’t be submitted in court, but it will need extra evidence to support it.
emSigner Supports Following Use Cases for Standard Electronic Signatures (SES)
- Regular employment contracts, non-disclosure agreements, employee invention agreements, privacy notices, benefits paperwork and other new employee onboarding processes under HR operations of an organization
- Software license agreements
- Copyright, patent and trademark licenses
- Commercial agreements between corporate entities including non-disclosure agreements, purchase orders, order acknowledgements, invoices, other procurement documents, sales agreements, distribution agreements, service agreements
- Consumer agreements including new retail account opening documents, sales terms, services terms, software licenses, purchase orders, order confirmations, invoices, shipment documentation, user manuals, policies
- Residential and commercial lease agreements except termination notices regarding residential lease agreements
- Intangible property transfers (e.g., patent and copyright assignments)
emSigner Supports Following Use Cases for Standard Electronic Signatures Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
- Any contracts that set forth obligations with a value over 100 Readjustable Units (“Unidades Reajustables”) (approximately USD 2,856) (Article 1595 Uruguayan Civil Code)
- Labor contracts or labor contracts that estipulate a defined- term (case law)
- Settlement agreement (Article 2147 Uruguayan Civil Code)
- Lease agreements of rural estate properties and sharecropping (Act 14.384)
- Insurance agreements (Article 644 Uruguayan Commercial Civil Code)
- Agreements on interests in Loan Agreements (Article 2205 Uruguayan Civil Code)
emSigner Works With the Local Trust Service Providers and Supports Following Use Cases For Qualified Electronic Signature (QES)
- Securities (títulos valores) (Act 14.701)
Use Cases That Are Not Supported or Typically Not Appropriate for Electronic Signatures or Digital Transaction Management Using emSigner
Following are the use cases that are specifically not supported for digital or electronic processes or that includes requirements wherein wet ink or handwritten signatures or formal notarization is required.
- Life-time annuity contract (Article 2183 Uruguayan Civil Code)
- Trust contracts (Article 2 Act 17.703)
- Articles of incorporation of a company or corporation (Article 277 Act 16.320)
- Contracts to purchase or transfer real property (Article 1619, 1664, ad 1770 Uruguayan Civil Code)
- Certain contracts governed by family law, such as marriage contracts (Article 1943 Uruguayan Civil Code)
- Certain contracts governed by the law of success, such as contracts of inheritance (Article 793 Uruguayan Civil Code), contracts waiving inheritance (Article 1075 Uruguayan Civil Code), inheritance sales (Article 1664 Uruguayan Civil Code)
- Certain guarantee contracts: Mortgage Contract (Article 2323 Uruguayan Civil Code); Antichresis Contract (Article 2350 Uruguayan Civil Code); Pledge Without Delivery (Prenda sin desplazamiento) (Article 4 Act 17.228)
“Digital Signature” means a transformation of a message using an asymmetric cryptosystem
such that a person having the initial message and the signer’s public key can accurately
determine
(a) whether the transformation was created using the private key that corresponds to the
signer’s public key; and
(b) whether the message has been altered since the transformation was made<br>
External Resources
eMudhra, and all associates including agents, officers, employees or affiliates, are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary or consequential damages.