Emojis are something most of us tend to use in our daily conversations on various social media platforms, right? But who can imagine that an emoji, that too of a thumbs up can not only put you into trouble but even attract a mammoth penalty of Rs 50 lakh??
Something of that sort just happened with a farmer in Canada.
A Canadian farmer has landed in hot water for sending a thumbs up emoji to a potential buyer of his produce. Chris Achter, a farmer in Saskatchewan, Canada, sent the thumbs-up emoji to acknowledge the receipt of a contract he was sent via text message.
However, a judge has ruled that the emoji amounted to a contractual agreement and a digital signature. The judge levied a hefty fine on the farmer for failure to fulfil the contract, BBC reported.
The farmer must now pay $82,000 in Canadian dollars (Rs 50 lakh approximately) to grain buyer Kent Mickleborough, who sent him the contract to purchase 86 tonnes of flax in 2021.
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Buyer Mickleborough said he spoke to Achter over the phone about purchasing the grain. After the phone call, he sent the farmer a draft of a contract, writing "Please confirm flax contract."
Achter responded with a thumbs-up emoji but failed to deliver the order by the specified date. The farmer said his emoji “simply confirmed that I received the flax contract. It was not a confirmation that I agreed with the terms.”
However, Mickleborough claims the two had a long business association and he took the thumbs up emoji to mean a confirmation from Achter’s side. Justice Timothy Keene sided with Mickleborough and levied a fine on Achter for failure to fulfil the contract, as per a Money Control report.
"This court readily acknowledges that a thumbs-up emoji is a non-traditional means to 'sign' a document," Justice Keene wrote. "But nevertheless under these circumstances this was a valid way to convey the two purposes of a 'signature'," he said.
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