A farmer made a deal with a buyer. He used an emoji that has now become his downfall.
A Canadian farmer negotiated with a customer for a big deal. Specifically, it was about 87 tons of flax that he wanted to sell to the customer. Flax is one of the most important materials in the textile industry, so it is traded at a high price.
But during the negotiation, the farmer made a “mistake” that is now costing him a lot of money (via The Guardian).
Emoji on a document leads to fine
What was exactly the problem with the emoji? During the negotiations, the farmer received an image of a contract with a request to confirm it. He sent the famous thumbs up
as his response.
According to his own statements, the farmer intended it only to show that he had received the message, not to agree to the contract. He did not even have time to look at it.
However, his contracting party saw the emoji as confirmation of his request and thus of the contract. The court also recognized that this symbol is “an unconventional means of signing a document.” In this particular situation, it is valid as it “serves the purpose of a signature.”
Why does he have to pay a fine? The Canadian was unable to deliver the agreed 87 tons of flax by the end of the deadline. As a result, the customer filed a lawsuit, claiming that the farmer had accepted the agreement by sending the emoji.
Therefore, the court decided that the farmer must pay a fine equivalent to 56,000 euros, as he could not fulfill the agreement with the buyer.
Emojis have been around for over 20 years, the smiley is even older
Who actually invented the emojis? The inventor of emojis is the Japanese Shigetaka Kurita. In 1999, he programmed 176 small images for a telecommunications company that could be used in addition to text in an SMS. Emoji is Japanese and translates to “picture character.”
The idea behind such faces that can convey emotions is even older. On September 19, 1982, computer science professor Scott Fahlmann sent the first electronic smiley, formed from three punctuation marks. Most users might be familiar with the smiley.
Today, there are hundreds of such small images that can be integrated into messages. Depending on the operating system or manufacturer, the images differ in details, but mean the same thing. On iOS, for example, emojis look different than on an Android phone.
