A Rebuttable Presumption of Authenticity for Digital Signatures Conditioned on System Security: Allocating the Burden of Proof in Electronic Commerce Contract Disputes

Source abstract

The 2023 Law on Electronic Transactions of Vietnam recognises digital signatures as legally equivalent to handwritten signatures, yet neither electronic transactions law nor civil procedure law determines the procedural consequences of a valid digital signature: when one party denies having signed, who must prove what, and on what grounds. Drawing on recent judgments in online banking disputes and on German and United States experience, this article shows that Vietnamese courts are implicitly applying a presumption derived from standard-form contracts rather than from statutory rules. It proposes a rebuttable presumption of authenticity for digital signatures with an exhaustive list of rebuttal grounds, and argues that the benefit of this presumption should be conditioned on the relying party demonstrating the security of the authentication system.