Electronic Seal: Origin, Integrity and Legal Persons

What is an electronic seal?

Under EU eIDAS, an electronic seal is electronic data associated with other electronic data to support its origin and integrity. Its creator is a legal person, such as an organization, rather than a natural person signing to express their own intent.

The Commission’s eSignature and eSeal FAQ explains this distinction. An electronic seal is not simply a company-logo image, an electronic notary stamp or a substitute term for an individual’s signature.

Seal versus a representative’s signature

An authorized person can sign on behalf of a company. That remains a person’s signing act; it should not be confused with a seal’s organization-origin function. The presence of either mechanism does not by itself settle every question about authority, consent or the agreement’s terms.

Advanced and qualified electronic seals

Advanced seals have additional identification, control and change-detection requirements. A qualified electronic seal adds a qualified seal certificate and a qualified seal creation device to the advanced requirements.

eIDAS Article 35 gives qualified seals a presumption concerning the integrity and correctness of origin of the linked data. This is not the handwritten-signature equivalence assigned to a qualified electronic signature, and it is not a guarantee that every statement in the document is true.

What should the recipient assess?

Check the relevant trust service, its qualified service status where required, and the validation evidence. A timestamp can address a separate timing question, while preservation measures support later review. A visible seal graphic alone does not establish any of those properties.