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In May 2025, we published an article on this site entitled: "Electronic signature, judges are rebelling". Well, they are fighting back even more because the trend is continuing. Since then, many decisions concerning electronic signature have been handed down by courts of appeal, including a good number of refusals which, for the first time, concern professional leasing and real estate loans.
Their analysis is rich in lessons.

Under French law, the definition of an electronic signature (Art. 1367 Al.2 Civil Code) implies a "link" between the act and the signature identifying its author. This notion of link is also found in the definition of the advanced signature in the European eIDAS Regulation (Art. 26) which states that the advanced signature must be "unequivocally linked to the signatory". But the meaning of this link is not obvious. We believe that it can be understood according to three approaches: a conceptual approach that projects onto the electronic signature a characteristic of the handwritten signature; a technical approach defining it via the electronic signature technology; and finally an opportunistic approach linked to the development of the on-the-fly certificate and the notion of evidence file, widely adopted by French judges.

Over the period from the end of March to mid-April 2025, the Courts of Appeal issued about fifteen decisions on electronic signatures. Nearly half of them refuse to acknowledge the signing of the contract electronically, which is an exceptionally high ratio compared to what we used to see. We have analysed these negative decisions

Digital accessibility is an obligation for all e_commerce sites for new services from June 28, 2025. Existing "similar" services have an additional 5 years to comply with these obligations. But what is a "similar" service really?

Decisions relating to electronic signatures are increasing in number. More than 200 decisions on the subject were handed down by appeal courts in 2024, twice as many as the previous year. This trend is only likely to continue as the use of electronic signatures becomes widespread across all sectors.

On March 13, 2024 (Commercial Chamber, 22-16.487), the Court of Cassation issued a very interesting ruling on the limits of using scanned signatures to attest to the identity and consent of their author.

By a judgment handed down on February 14, 2024 (Social Chamber, No. 22-23.073), the Court of Cassation undermined the supposedly absolute nature of the right of individuals to be informed of the processing of personal data concerning them.

The Versailles Court of Appeal, in a judgment handed down on November 28, 2023 (CA Versailles, No. 22/06599, Caisse d'Epargne et de Prévoyance IDF v. MX), refused to recognize the reality of the simple electronic signature of a personal loan contract. This is not a rejection, in itself, of the simple level of electronic signature, but rather a sanction for the numerous gaps and imprecisions in the bank's argument in this case.

Would artificial intelligence pose a danger to the legal profession? We don't think so, despite the aggressive advertising of some applications.

On June 8, 2023, the Orléans Court of Appeal issued an original and very well-argued ruling on electronic signatures (RG No. 22/00539), concerning a personal credit contract between Carrefour Banque and a borrower.