The ESIGN Act of 2000

Passed at the height of the dot-com boom, the ESIGN act was the foundational legislation that allowed e-commerce and digital contracts to exist.

Historical Context

Before 2000, if you bought a house or signed a major B2B contract across state lines, documents had to be physically mailed or faxed. The ESIGN act federally mandated that a contract cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form.

The UETA Companion

While ESIGN is a federal law, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) is a framework adopted by 49 states that provides more specific state-level governance over electronic records.