The legal basis
Electronic signatures made with EasySign meet the legal requirements for a signature under New Zealand and Australian law for most business documents. Whether an agreement itself is binding still depends on ordinary contract law. Here is what each country’s law says, what it leaves out, and what EasySign records to back a signature up.
This page is general information, not legal advice. If a document matters, or you are not sure it can be signed electronically, check with your lawyer.
New Zealand
- The law
- Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017, Part 4 subpart 3 (section 226)
- What it requires
- An electronic signature meets a legal requirement for a signature if it adequately identifies the signer and shows their approval of the information, and is as reliable as is appropriate for the purpose and circumstances. Where the information must legally be given to someone, that person has to consent to an electronic signature. Witnessing can also be electronic (section 227).
- What it leaves out
- Schedule 5 lists exclusions, including wills and codicils; affidavits, statutory declarations and other sworn documents; most powers of attorney and enduring powers of attorney; negotiable instruments; bills of lading; and notices that must be given to the public or in person or by registered post.
Australia
- The law
- Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth), section 10, plus each state and territory’s own Electronic Transactions Act
- What it requires
- A signature required under a Commonwealth law can be given electronically if the method identifies the person and shows their intention about the information, is as reliable as appropriate (or shown in fact to have done that), and the person it is given to consents. The state and territory Acts follow the same model for their own laws.
- What it leaves out
- Some laws and documents are exempted by regulation or by the Act itself. Documents with their own signing or witnessing rules, such as wills and some property and court documents, need checking under the law of the state concerned.
How EasySign helps a signature meet those tests
Each law asks the same broad questions: can you show who signed, that they meant to sign this document, and that the method was reliable enough? EasySign records the answers (see Security).
- Who signed: the signer’s name and email, a one-time code sent to that email before signing, and an optional access code.
- That they approved this document: guided steps through every field and page, initials on each page, and the signature last, with the envelope reference and ID printed on every page of the completed copy.
- Reliability: a certificate of completion with IP addresses and times, a hash-chained audit trail, and a digital seal with a trusted timestamp that breaks if the file is changed.
- Consent: a sender’s saved signature is only applied with their recorded consent.
Our reading: none of this changes which documents the law excludes. A will, a sworn statement or a document that must be witnessed or registered in a particular way still has to follow its own rules.
Sources (read 27 October 2026)
See it with one of your own documents.
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