6 myths about the electronic signature

Did you too find yourself with a pile of contracts that could not be signed on Tuesday 17 March 2020?

The health crisis has triggered a real awareness of the dematerialisation of contractual processes, and in the first place of electronic signatures.

For our second special edition of Paroles de Juristes, we interviewed Lucie Greiveldinger, Alliance Manager at Yousign, a 100% French electronic signature solution which, with 7,000 customers, 130 employees and a recent €30 million fundraising, aims to become the French and European leader in this market.

To learn more about electronic signatures and to answer the questions that legal teams have about them, we asked Lucie about 6 truths or untruths about electronic signatures.

#1 - All electronic signatures are equal

The electronic signatures present on the market generally have the same level of security without having the same level of security between simple, advanced and qualified signature.

What will change and differentiate us is not so much the value between the different providers, but rather :
✅ Pricing
✅ User experience
✅ Customer support responsiveness
✅ Ease of use

Everything that constitutes the experience facilitates the experience around the use of a product and not so much the legal value because ultimately the objective is that all these solutions offer things that stand up.

#2 - Electronic signatures are too expensive

Not true! Real savings can be made with an electronic signature solution.

At Yousign for example, our Pricing starts at 9€ per month per user.

💡 Good to know: Below you will find a comparison drawn up in an article about the selection criteria of electronic signature solutions.

#3-Electronic signature requires significant technical expertise

False, ARCHI-FALSE and so much the better!

This is one of the promises of our application: to create a very intuitive and simple solution. We won't be able to generate usage on the solution with a large number of users if we don't offer something simple.

In the end, even our accompanying training courses are useless! Except with very large clients with large teams and specific issues, our clients find it very easy to find their way around with such an easy-to-use interface.

#4 -I cannot prove the existence of a signature in case of disputes

FALSE and that is the whole point of the electronic signature!

Yousign guarantees the authenticity of its customers' electronic signatures and archives proof files. This file, also called Audit Trail, contains the technical information that was recorded during the signature of a document. In the event of a dispute, it can be presented to prove the reliability of the signature.

💡 Good to know: The electronic signature guarantees

• The integrity of the document: the document may not be modified or altered in any way between its signature and its consultation.

• The identity of the signature is guaranteed by authentication: the identity of the signatories is verified via different identification options (email address, access code, phone call, sms, verification of ID etc.)

Here is an example of an evidence file:

#5 - An electronic signature with a certificate issued in France is not valid in Denmark

IF, Denmark is part of the European Union and we are eIDAS certified so we can actually use Yousign for contracts based in Denmark.

💡 Good to know: What is the legal value of the electronic signature?
Find more information about eIdas certification and the legal value of electronic signature in this dedicated article.

#6 - The electronic signature is only used for B2B contracts, I cannot integrate it for our contracts with our end customers who are individuals (to mention the API)

FALSE!

I signed my minutes of the last general meeting with an electronic signature solution as a private individual.

We have a large number of customers who use the Yousign API to initiate a signature request for their end customers.

The only criterion is that the initiator of the signature must be a professional and not an individual.