A civil panel of the Riga District Court has ruled that the thumbs-up palm emoji in official correspondence can be interpreted as written consent, Latvian publication Delfi reported.

The court decision was reached after an employee's appeal against his dismissal. On the Slack platform, employees at the company where the plaintiff worked were told to be in the office on Wednesday. The man responded to the Slack message with a thumbs up emoji. According to the court, in this way he expressed written consent.

The magistrates supported their conclusion with the Cambridge Dictionary, which interprets this emoticon as "an affirmation of something". It is believed that the employee could not have been unaware of the meaning of the emoji.

The decision of the court in Riga can not be considered a precedent - a month ago, a Canadian court fined a farmer more than 60,000 dollars for not fulfilling a business agreement - he also "signed" it by putting a thumbs up emoji in a chat message with a client.

Follow Novinite.com on Twitter and Facebook

Write to us at editors@novinite.com

Информирайте се на Български - Novinite.bg