Farmer loses contract dispute over use of a “thumbs-up” emoji, judge says

cnn.com

2 pointscglong3 comments

Interesting. Previous contracts between the parties were informal, over text message ("ok", "yup"). The emoji is an extra layer of informality, but it's the same effect. It's nice to see the courts keeping up.

> a meeting of the minds – just like they had done on numerous other occasions

That's a key a lot of the coverage of this issue misses out on highlighting. A contract fundamentally is a meeting of the minds and an acknowledgment of that. If former business had always been conducted between the two parties with paperwork, signatures, and lawyers it's unlikely the judge would have considered this a meeting of the minds. The history between these two clearly was the primary decider in that an emoji is acceptance.

Seems reasonable to me. The judge acknowledges that, without context, an emoji can be construed to mean many things and it should be interpretted with caution.

It sounds reasonable for the courts to interpret the emoji as acceptance given the context of all the previously communication, particularly if the farmer had agreed to similar sales before, with similar conditions, using similar language.

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