There are different legal provisions that regulate the use of the Electronic Signature in Mexico. The most important and relevant in the case of private electronic document signing are.
The Code of Commerce indicates in article 89 that the Electronic Signature produces the same legal effects as the autograph signature, so it is admissible and has the same probative value in court as the documents signed with autograph signature.
On the other hand, the article 7 of the Law of Advanced Electronic Signature (LFEA))establishes that electronic documents and data messages that have an Advanced Electronic Signature will produce the same effects as those presented with autograph signature, so they will have the same probative value
Thus, DigitaFirma users can replace the traditional signature autograph in all kinds of private documents, agreements, and contracts in general, which will also be admitted as valid evidence in a trial.
The Commercial Code considers two types of Electronic Signature, below we explain their differences:
The Advanced Electronic Signature has characteristics that make it reliable and are defined in the artículo 97 del Commercial Code , and are as follows:
There is a robust legal framework on which the validity of the electronically signed documents. Different legal provisions and criteria, including jurisprudential, that is, mandatory observance by the courts, the documents are acceptable as evidence in trials..
Particularly in the Federal Civil Code, the Federal Civil Procedures Code, the Commercial Code and the Law of Advanced Electronic Signature, there are specific rules for judges to admit, assess and consider electronically signed documents in resolutions that are pronounced.
There are legal provisions that are applicable or regulate the use of the Electronic Signature in a wide variety of fields and matters belonging to both Public Law as well as Private Law, among them are:
Conforming to article 49 of the Commercial Code, in the case of data messages (electronic documents), the information must be kept intact and unchanged from its generation, and must be accessible for subsequent consultation.
In accordance with the above, the Secretariat of Economy of the Federal Government of Mexico issued the Official Mexican Standard NOM-151-SCFI-2016 which defines the requirements that must be observed for the preservation of data messages and digitization of documents , better known simply as “NOM-151”.
he PSCs, among other services they provide, are responsible for issuing a "Data Message Conservation Certificate", which must have a digital time stamp.
The Data Message Preservation Constancy allows:
The Federal Judicial Branch has been issuing criteria, including jurisprudential [6], that is, mandatory observance by the federal courts, according to which, in order for a contract to have evidentiary effectiveness before tax authorities, it is necessary to prove the "certain date" on which the contract was concluded.
One way to comply with the "certain date" requirement is to formalize the contracts before a Public Notary and register the acts in the Public Registry of Commerce, however, this process is expensive, if payment is considered of notarial fees and registration rights in the Public Registry of Commerce, with respect to each contract.
