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And what if you bumped an autocomplete message that said: “looks good to me”

Should you be allowed to back out of any contract by pretending you didn’t accept when you sent a message of acceptance?

The judge here made the right call and the examples given in the article highlight why this was the correct decision.

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Yes. A written contract should require a legal signature, be it a written signature or an electronic signature. Replying 'looks good to me' (or hitting thumbs up) over a text message etc should not be considered a legally binding contract, especially when you are talking about big ticket items such as multiple-tens-of-thousands of dollars in produce.

In any rate, once old mate sent the thumbs up, they should have exchanged actual contract documents.

This is why contract laws exist and shouldn't be eroded with nonsense like this.

Your desire for “actual contact documents” is complete overkill from my perspective. Verbal contracts are a thing in many jurisdictions.

Formalities can help prove things but they are often not required.

Contracts do not usually require a signed piece of paper and never have. Informal agreements are every bit as legally binding.

I do not know about this situation in particular, though. Reading emojis is like reading tea leaves.

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