On 18.06.2024, the Chamber of Deputies adopted the Draft Law on the Use and Provision of Trust Services, already adopted in October 2023 in the Senate (the Draft Law). The Draft law was sent to the Romanian President for promulgation. On June 27.  The Draft Law it establishes the necessary measures to implement Directive (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market.

On electronic signatures:

First of all, all types of electronic signature provided for by the Directive and the Draft Law  may be used as evidence before the courts, and a legal act in electronic form signed with the minimum electronic signature required for that act produces the same legal effects as a legal act in letter form.

A qualified electronic signature is treated in the same way as a handwritten signature, which is why electronic documents signed in this way have the value of a privately signed document.

The advanced electronic signature produces the effects of a handwritten signature in any of the following cases

1. if it has been signed with an advanced electronic signature issued by a public authority or public institution in Romania;
2. if it has been signed with an advanced electronic signature issued by a qualified trust service provider or by an unqualified trust service provider that has been notified in advance to the RDA (Romanian Digitization Authority);
3. the parties have expressly agreed in a separate instrument, signed by a holographic signature or a qualified electronic signature, that they will give the advanced electronic signature the legal effects of a holographic signature. The parties confirm by the same act that they have understood the risks and the burden of proof concerning the advanced electronic signature. In the case of legal relationships where both parties are professionals as defined by the Civil Code, the separate document may also be signed with an advanced electronic signature.

Moreover, electronic documents signed with an advanced electronic signature issued by legal persons governed by private law and used in a closed system have the same value as a holographic signature. Members of the closed electronic system, in their interaction with each other, may agree on the value and legal effects for any type of electronic signature.

A simple electronic signature produces the effects of a holographic signature in any of the following cases:

1. in the case of pecuniary acts assessable in money with a value of less than half of the gross minimum wage;
2. point (c) of the advanced electronic signature shall apply accordingly to the simple electronic signature.

It must be noted that an electronic document signed with more than one type of electronic signature produces the legal effects conferred by the electronic signature with the lowest level of confidence.

It is up to the one contesting the legal and technical requirements for a qualified electronic signature to prove that the legal and technical requirements for a qualified electronic signature have been infringed. Where a simple or advanced electronic signature is challenged, the burden of proof shall be reversed and shall fall on the person challenging the validity of the signature.

Concerning electronic time stamps:

The Law also refers to time marks, which are regulated more extensively in the Regulation. Under the Regulation, a qualified electronic time stamp issued in one Member State is recognized as a qualified electronic time stamp in all Member States and benefits from the presumption of the correctness of the date and time indicated and the integrity of the data to which the date and time indicated relate.

The requirements for an electronic time stamp to be considered as qualified are the following:

1. it provides a link between the date and time and the data such as to reasonably preclude the possibility that the data could be changed without detection;
2. is based on an accurate time source linked to coordinated universal time; and
3. is signed using an advanced electronic signature or sealed with a qualified trusted service provider's advanced electronic seal or an equivalent method.

Author: Adoriana Azoiței-Frumosu and Daniel Spatariu