Electronic signatures in the UAE bind most contracts, at three levels of proof.

The Decree-Law, in its own words.

Federal Decree-Law No. 46 of 2021 on Electronic Transactions and Trust Services came into force on 2 January 2022 and repealed Federal Law No. 1 of 2006 on Electronic Commerce and Transactions. Its core provisions, in its own words:

• Article 5(1): 'An Electronic Document shall not lose its legal force or enforceability for being in electronic form.'
• Article 10: 'offer and acceptance may be expressed electronically', and 'A contract shall not lose its validity, evidential weight or enforceability merely because it is made in the form of one or more Electronic Documents.'
• Article 8(1): where a law requires a signature, the requirement is met by 'a means of identifying a person and indicating the intention of such person with respect to the information contained in the Electronic Document', provided the means meets one of two further conditions set out in the same article.
• Article 18(1): an electronic document, signature or transaction is not inadmissible as evidence merely because it is electronic.
• Article 18(3): 'A Qualified Electronic Signature shall be considered equal in its authenticity to a manual signature and shall have the same legal effect', so long as it meets the conditions of the Decree-Law and its Executive Regulations.

Two limits sit in the same text. Nobody is required to deal electronically, although consent can be inferred from conduct (Articles 5(3), 5(4) and 28(1)). And a person may use any form of electronic signature 'unless the legislation in force provides otherwise' (Article 28(2), echoed in Article 8(2)).

Three levels, each carrying a stronger presumption.

The Decree-Law defines three levels. Each step up carries a stronger legal presumption and asks more of the signing process.

Trust service providers are licensed by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), which publishes the UAE Trust List of licensed providers and qualified services (Articles 17 and 27). The Executive Regulation, Cabinet Resolution No. 28 of 2023, adds the licensing procedure and what a qualified certificate must contain.

Which documents cannot be signed electronically?

The Decree-Law itself contains no list of excluded documents. Instead, Article 2(2) lets the Cabinet 'add, delete or exclude any transaction, document, service or procedure', and Articles 8(2) and 28(2) keep in force any other law that prescribes a form. Its Executive Regulation, Cabinet Resolution No. 28 of 2023, deals with licensing trust service providers and with signature and certificate requirements. The text we read contains no list of excluded documents either.

If a guide gives you a list, check which law it cites. Federal Law No. 1 of 2006 was repealed by Article 53 of the 2021 Decree-Law.

What remains is to check the law that governs your document and the authority that will receive it. The Decree-Law expressly lets government authorities set their own requirements for the electronic documents they accept and keep, including the form of signature and the level of security (Articles 6(4), 9(3) and 28(7)).

The financial free zones have their own regimes. Section 25 of the ADGM Electronic Transactions Regulations 2021 excludes any requirement for writing or signatures in four matters:

• the creation, performance or enforcement of a power of attorney
• the creation and execution of wills, codicils or testamentary trusts
• the sale, purchase, lease for more than 10 years or other disposition of immovable property, and the registration of rights over it
• any document to be notarised before a notary public.

The DIFC has its own Electronic Transactions Law, DIFC Law No. 2 of 2017, as amended.

UAE PASS signs at the qualified level for fully verified accounts.

UAE PASS is the national digital identity, and it can sign documents. Its developer documentation sets out three account levels. A basic account (SOP1) has no access to digital signature. An account verified through Smart Pass or Dubai ID (SOP2) signs at the advanced level, where a service allows it. For a fully verified account (SOP3), the 'user digital signature is qualified level'. Signatures on PDF documents use the PAdES format.

The Decree-Law makes the digital identity the way into government e-services, and requires government authorities to accept electronic signatures and digital identities at the trust and security levels the TDRA sets (Article 28(3) to 28(5)). Private businesses can integrate UAE PASS sign-in and signing under a service provider agreement.

For a counterparty with a verified UAE PASS account, that makes a qualified signature a practical option. For a counterparty abroad without one, it usually is not, and a qualified certificate from another licensed provider, or a different level of signature, is the alternative.

The relying party chooses the level, and carries the risk.

The Decree-Law puts the choice on the party relying on the signature. It should set the security level 'according to the nature, value or importance of the transaction', take the necessary measures to verify the signer's identity, and it bears the risk if its reliance was not acceptable (Article 29). As general information, not advice, that leads most businesses to three tiers:

Article 29 also tells the relying party to weigh any previous dealings with the signer. A long-standing client signing a routine change order is a different risk from a new counterparty signing a guarantee, and the level of signature can reflect that.

A signer outside the UAE still has two routes.

The Decree-Law recognises qualified trust services from providers outside the UAE if they are similar in level to those of UAE-licensed qualified providers (Article 37). In practice, a counterparty abroad without a UAE PASS account can still sign with a simple electronic signature, which can meet a signature requirement under Article 8, or with a qualified signature from their own jurisdiction, whose recognition depends on that similarity.

For cross-border contracts, also decide which law governs the contract and where disputes go, and write both into it. The signature rules of the governing law, and of the place where the contract may have to be enforced, are the ones that matter in a dispute.

A signing system has to keep six kinds of evidence.

If a signature is ever challenged, the question is what you can prove. The Decree-Law's rules on storing electronic documents and on originals give the checklist:

• The document exactly as signed, stored 'in the form in which it is created, sent or received', or in a form that proves it accurately represents that document (Article 6(1)(a)).
• Technical evidence that the content has not changed since it was first created in its final form, such as a cryptographic hash of the signed file (Article 9(1)).
• Who signed: the identity check used, for example a one-time code sent to a verified email address or phone, or the UAE PASS account level.
• Intent: the explicit action the signer took, and the words shown beside it.
• When and between whom: the originator, the destination, and the date and time of sending and receiving (Article 6(1)(c)), with the time zone stated.
• Access for later reference, for as long as you must keep the record (Article 6(1)(b)), and the same final file in both parties' hands.

One more rule sits outside the law and decides many disputes: what the signer reviewed on screen and what the signed file contains must be the same document. Rendered from two different sources, they will drift apart sooner or later.

Our portal signs at the electronic level, and says so.

Every SolaryxDev agreement is read and signed in our client portal. The signer confirms with a one-time code sent by email for that document, gives their legal name and the capacity they sign in, and the portal records the browser used. The document on screen and the signed PDF render from the same source, and each signed copy is kept with its signer record.

That is an electronic signature under Federal Decree-Law No. 46 of 2021. It is not a qualified electronic signature, and we do not describe it as one. Where a document needs a qualified signature, UAE PASS or another licensed qualified trust service provider is the route. We build the same signing flow for clients: see client portals and e-signature, and how signing fits our five-step process and our commitments.

Signing sits at the centre of two trades we write for: professional services and real estate. In real estate, check the registry's own requirements before relying on any electronic signature. In ADGM, the electronic transactions regulations do not apply to immovable property transactions at all.