SamoaElectronic Transactions Act 2008, electronic contract and signature recognition
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived . Publisher's page: https://www.paclii.org/ws/legis/consol_act_2020/eta2008256.pdfIn force since .
A contract terms of service (ToS) rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Contract terms
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Where a service's terms condition access to the site on a user's or automated agent's acceptance, expect that acceptance may be found from conduct alone, since Samoan law lets consent to use an electronic record be inferred from a person's conduct rather than requiring a signed or clicked agreement.
- Do not rely on an electronic signature to satisfy a signature requirement unless it identifies the signatory, indicates their approval, is as reliable as the purpose requires, and the recipient consents to receiving it.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 4 says nothing in the Act requires a person to use, provide or accept an electronic record without consent, and that consent may be inferred from conduct; section 8 lets an electronic signature satisfy a legal requirement for a signature. Neither requires anyone to create, keep, produce or review a log or record. Section 10, which the row does not cite, says a legal requirement to retain information is satisfied by retaining it as an electronic record in an accessible form; it creates no retention duty of its own. The cited sections state no territorial clause, so no hook is recorded.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 4(1) provides that nothing in the Act requires a person to use, provide, or accept an electronic record without that person's consent, and section 4(2)(b) provides that consent may be inferred from a person's conduct, so a browsewrap-style acceptance by continued use of a service may satisfy a consent requirement without a signed or clicked agreement.
Section 8 lets an electronic signature satisfy a legal requirement for a signature where it adequately identifies the signatory, indicates approval, is as reliable as appropriate to the purpose, and the recipient consents to receiving it, with reliability presumed where the means of creating the signature is linked to and under the control of the signatory alone and no alteration is detectable after signing.
Section 5 makes the Act binding on the Government, subject to an exception for the Controller and Auditor General. The Act creates no offence and states no penalty for its own breach.
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