Wet-Ink Signature

The law does not use the phrase. Wet-ink signature is the working name for what legal texts call a handwritten signature: a mark that a person makes with their own hand on the paper document itself. "Wet" points to ink applied to that sheet, as opposed to a printed, stamped or copied image of a signature.

The articles of the eIDAS Regulation mention the handwritten signature once, in Article 25(2), and do not define it. The regulation treats the handwritten signature as a known quantity against which an electronic one can be measured. What counts as a valid handwritten signature is left to national law. That includes whether initials are enough, whether the name must be legible, and where on the document the signature must sit.

It links a person to a document through their handwriting. A signature on paper does three jobs at once. It points to who signed. It shows that the person meant to approve the text or be bound by it. It marks the document as final.

Its weaknesses are practical. A pen stroke does not record who held the pen, so a disputed signature is settled by comparing handwriting or by hearing witnesses, under national rules of evidence. A signature on the last page says nothing about whether an earlier page was swapped, which is why parties often initial every page of an important contract. The proof also lives in one original, not in its copies.

When a rule on the form of a document demands it, and that rule nearly always comes from national law. eIDAS leaves such rules alone. Article 2(3) says the regulation does not affect Union or national law on the conclusion and validity of contracts, other legal or procedural obligations relating to form, or sector-specific requirements relating to form.

Each member state has its own list. Form rules tend to gather around acts that the law treats as weighty or hard to reverse, such as wills, dealings in land and documents that must be made before a notary. Which acts are on the list, and what exactly the form is, differs from one country to the next. There is no single EU answer.

A firm checking a specific document should read the wording of the rule that governs it. "In writing" and "signed" do not mean the same as "signed by hand". Some rules name an electronic form that may stand in for paper. Others exclude electronic form for a given act. Some require a notary, a witness or the handing over of an original, which no signature of any kind supplies.

A requirement can also come from outside the law. A registry, a bank or a counterparty in another country may insist on paper originals as its own practice. A contract can prescribe how later notices under it must be signed.

As a signature, yes. As a whole form, not always. Article 25(2) says a qualified electronic signature shall have the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature. It is the only kind of electronic signature with that status. Under Article 24a(1), a qualified electronic signature based on a qualified certificate issued in one member state is recognised as qualified in every other member state, so the equivalence does not stop at a border.

The equivalence is with the signature. It does not reach everything else a form rule may ask for. Because of Article 2(3), a national rule that requires a notarial deed, a witness or a paper original still applies. So does a rule that excludes electronic form for a particular act. In those cases the qualified signature settles whether the document was signed, and the remaining requirements have to be met separately.

Simple and advanced electronic signatures do not have this status. Article 25(1) only protects them from being refused as evidence for being electronic or for not being qualified.

The two have the same legal effect but are proved in different ways. A wet-ink signature is tied to its signer by handwriting. Nobody checks the signer's identity at the moment of signing unless a notary or a witness is present. A qualified electronic signature is based on a qualified certificate. Before issuing one, a qualified trust service provider must verify the identity of the person it is issued to (Article 24(1)).

They also differ on changes to the document. Ink on the signature page does not reveal an alteration elsewhere. A qualified signature is an advanced signature first, so it must be linked to the signed data in such a way that any subsequent change is detectable (Article 26).

Checking differs too. A paper signature is examined by eye, or by a handwriting expert if it is challenged. A qualified signature can be validated by software. Article 32 lists what the validation must confirm, including that the certificate was valid at the time of signing and that the integrity of the signed data has not been compromised.

No. An image of a handwritten signature placed in a file is data in electronic form. Used to sign, it is an electronic signature at the basic level under Article 3(10), a simple electronic signature that anyone holding the file can copy.

A scan of a fully signed paper document is a different thing. It is an electronic copy of a wet-ink original. Article 46 says an electronic document shall not be denied legal effect or admissibility as evidence solely because it is in electronic form. Whether the copy can stand in for the original, where a law or a registry asks for the original, is again decided by national rules.