Do e-signatures in Vietnam have legal value? What are types of e-signatures in Vietnam?

Do e-signatures in Vietnam have legal value?

Pursuant to Article 23 of the Law on Electronic Transactions in 2023 stipulating legal value of e-signatures:

Legal value of e-signatures

1. E-signatures cannot have their legal value disclaimed for the sole reason that they are expressed in the form of e-signatures.

2. Special-use qualified e-signatures or digital signatures have legal value equivalent to handwritten signatures of individuals on printed documents.

3. Where any law requires a document to be authenticated by a specific agency or organization, it will be considered that a data message has fulfilled such requirement if it is signed by a special-use qualified e-signature or a digital signature of such agency or organization.

As regulated above, e-signatures cannot have their legal value disclaimed for the sole reason that they are expressed in the form of e-signatures. E-signatures have legal value equivalent to handwritten signatures.

Do e-signatures in Vietnam have legal value? What are types of e-signatures in Vietnam? - image from internet

What are types of e-signatures in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 22 of the Law on Electronic Transactions in 2023 stipulating e-signatures:

E-signatures

1. E-signatures are classified by their scope of use, including:

a) Special-use e-signatures are e-signatures designated and used by agencies and organizations for their particular purposes according with their functions and tasks;

b) Public digital signatures are digital signatures used in public activities and secured by public digital signature certificates;

c) Civil service digital signatures are digital signatures used in civil services and secured by civil service digital signature certificates;

2. Each special-use e-signature must fully satisfy the following requirements:

a) The signature must be added to recognize the signatory and assert the signatory’s approval for the data message;

b) Data used to generate the special-use e-signature must solely accompany the approved data message;

c) Data use to generate the special-use e-signature must be under the sole control of the signatory at the point of time when the signature is added.

d) Effect of the special-use e-signature can be checked under certain conditions agreed by the parties.

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4. The use of other authentication forms excluding e-signatures by electronic means to show signatories’ approval for data messages shall comply with other regulations of relevant laws.

As regulated above, there are 03 types of e-signatures in Vietnam:

- Special-use e-signatures

- Public digital signatures

- Civil service digital signatures

What are requirements for a digital signature being an e-signature in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Clause 3 Article 22 of the Law on Electronic Transactions in 2023, a digital signature is an e-signature fully satisfying the following requirements:

- The signature must be added to recognize the signatory and assert the signatory’s approval for the data message;

- Digital signature creation data must solely accompany the approved data message;

- Digital signature creation data must be under the sole control of the signatory at the point of time when the signature is added;

- All changes of the data message after adding the signature are detectable;

- The signature must be secured by a digital signature certificate. A civil service digital signature must be secured by a digital signature certificate of a civil service digital signature authentication service provider. A public digital signature must be secured by a digital signature certificate of a public digital signature authentication service provider;

- Signature creation device is responsible for qualifying that digital signature generation data must remain confidential, unique and protected from forgery; and data used to generate the digital signature is designed to be used only once; and it does not affect the data to be signed.