Legal Framework For Electronic Signatures In Mexico

Until the year 2000, Mexican law required for the validity of the act or contract the support of the written form and the autographic signature in order to bind the parties in a binding manner. On May 29, 2000, a decree was published reforming several provisions of the Federal Civil Code, the Federal Code of Civil Procedures, the Commercial Code and the Federal Consumer Protection Law.

The amendments and additions to the Federal Civil Code recognize the execution of legal acts through electronic, optical or any other technological means, as a suitable means to express consent (Article 1803), “provided that the information generated or communicated in full, through such means, is attributable to the obligors and accessible for subsequent consultation”. – Article 1834 bis.

Likewise, the Code of Commerce defines the concept of “data message” as the information generated, sent, received or filed through electronic, optical or any other technology, as set forth in Article 89 of said legal code.

For commercial transactions, the Commercial Code provides two defined categories of electronic signature:

• Simple electronic signature: is defined as “data in electronic form consigned in a data message, attached logically associated to it by any technology, which are used to identify the signer in relation to the data message and indicate that the signer approves the information contained in the data message, and which produces the same legal effects as the autograph signature, being admissible as evidence in court”.
• Advanced or trusted electronic signatures (known as e.signature or FIEL): An advanced or trusted electronic signature is an electronic signature that can meet the following requirements: The signature creation data are, in the context in which they are used, linked exclusively to the signer; or the signature creation data were, at the time of signing, under the exclusive control of the signer and no other person; or any alteration to the electronic signature, made after the time of signing, is detectable; or as to the integrity of the information in the data message to which it relates, any alteration made to that information after the time of signing is detectable.