According to the decision of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic of the last May, in order to maintain the written form of a legal act required by law in case of e-mail communication, it is necessary to sign the message by electronic signature. The decision of 22.5.2019 filed under ref. no. 26 Cdo 1230/2019 involved (non)compliance with the written form required by law with respect to the objections to termination of rent of premises used for business activities.
In the present case, any signature of a sender was missing in the e-mail message, by which the objections should be delivered, as it is apparent from the decision of the Municipal Court in Prague as a court of appeal: „It is not evident from the e-mail, by which the objections should have been delivered, by whom it was sent, when the signature of a sender is completely missing in the e-mail, moreover the e-mail address contains no name or last name of a person, but only an imaginative abs-car term.“
The Supreme Court in its subsequent decision stated, inter alia: „The objections represent a legal act, for which a written form is required by law (Section 2314 of Civil Code), therefore, there is no reason to assess the requirements on maintenance of the written form differently from other legal acts. If the applicant objected by an e-mail of 14.6.2016, which was not signed electronically, the statement of the court of appeal is that she did not comply with the written form of the Objections, in compliance with the case-law of the Supreme Court.”
With respect to the fact that the Supreme Court noted the need of electronic signature of an e-mail message, without specifying in detail, whether e.g. so called recognised electronic signature or simple electronic signature is needed, we consider it necessary to proceed conservatively, until the case-law on this issue is settled, and use either the recognised electronic signature or a paper form in writing with a handwritten signature.