Emojis are cute little graphics that we use to send to friends and family members to help say things that words might not be able to convey. They’re meant to be fun, but it seems that over in Israel, the use of emojis can actually be considered as proof of intent, or at least that’s the precedent that an Israeli judge is setting.Landlord Yaniv Dahan had posted an ad on a classified website for his home and received a response from a couple which based on the message sounded promising and conveyed optimism. It read, “Good morning 😊 Interested in the house 💃🏻👯✌️☄️🐿️🍾 Just need to discuss the details… When’s a good time for you?”
Based on that, Dahan removed his ad and proceeded to negotiate with the couple, only to find that after several exchanges, they stopped responding, which led to Dahan taking the couple to a small claims court. The couple claims that they were unhappy with the house’s physical condition which is why they opted to rent somewhere else instead.
However the judge felt that the way the couple had responded suggested that they were indeed planning on renting the place, and ultimately award Dahan roughly $2,000. Part of the judge’s ruling reads, “These icons convey great optimism. Although this message did not constitute a binding contract between the parties, this message naturally led to the Plaintiff’s great reliance on the defendants’ desire to rent his apartment.”
This is actually not the first time we’ve seen how emojis can be interpreted and used for legal purposes. In fact a lot of seemingly innocuous things like even double blue ticks on WhatsApp can now be considered as proof of receipt for legal notices.
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