This ruling, according to The Guardian, cost farmer Chris Achter no less than 56,000 euros for not complying with his contract. Grain buyer Kent Mickleborough and farmer Achter faced each other in the lawsuit. Mickleborough had a telephone conversation with farmer Achter about supplying flax. Then he sent a picture of a contract to deliver tons of flax. In the message he asked Achter to confirm the contract. The farmer responded with a thumbs up emoji.
Agree with the conditions
When farmer Achter had to deliver the flax, this did not happen, even though the prices for the crop did rise. The two men then argued about the meaning of the emoji and asked the court to rule on their argument. The grain buyer said in court that previous contracts had also been confirmed by text and suggested the emoji meant the farmer agreed to the terms of the contract.
According to the farmer, the emoji did not have such a weighty meaning at all. “An emoji is not a digital signature of a contract,” Boer Achter said in an official statement. “I didn’t have time to look at the flax contract and just wanted to indicate that I received his text message.”