Signing contracts with a simple electronic signature: the importance of establishing measures to prevent contractual invalidity

Abstract

The establishment of contracts with simple electronic signatures has generated recent controversy in Brazil over the supposed lack of legal certainty in the procedure for signing instruments. The discussion on the need to define preventive measures and their appropriate use constitutes the research's problem, as it increases the risk of absolute nullity of the signed instrument, resulting in unforeseen losses, such as the departure from contractual provisions and the nullity of the contract, due to the lack of acceptance of a proposal by other means. The aim of this research is to encourage the implementation of measures to prevent contractual invalidity due to failure to comply with the requirements of the electronic document. The article's justification lies in its relevance to the author, for his work in preventive law, and to society, for instructing legal professionals on the actions necessary for the validity of electronic instruments. It adopts the deductive method, with qualitative analysis, and procedurally bibliographic research, to demonstrate the need for preventive measures and the risks of absolute nullities. The results of the research indicate that the contractual instrument concluded by simple electronic signature tends to be considered accepted and regular by the judiciary when the preventive measures are applied.