Digital registered mail: is it as secure and legally valid?

Digital registered mail offers numerous important benefits: you can send your mail at a time of your convenience (and not that of the post office), you can closely track your mail’s progress, and you get to enjoy considerable cost savings etc. Only: does digital registered mail have the same legal validity as traditional registered mail? A good question!

Because businesses, public authorities and private citizens will only take advantage of a new service such as digital registered mail, if it’s 100% secure and reliable, and (at the very least) has the same legal validity as traditional physical registered mail.

Which is precisely what Europe wanted to ensure when it introduced the European eIDAS regulation, which came into force in 2014. This regulation was designed to increase confidence in electronic transactions within the European single market, by providing a common basis for secure electronic interaction between private citizens, businesses and public authorities.

Stringent requirements for digital registered mail

The European regulation established rules for a number of so-called trust services, which apply throughout the single market. This includes the ‘Qualified Electronic Registered Delivery Service’ (QeRDS).

A QeRDS involves sending ‘data’ (i.e.: an email) to another party via ‘electronic means’ (i.e.: the internet), and receiving proof that this ‘data’ was sent and received. This process requires the sender and recipient to first identify themselves before being able to send or receive mail.

What is digital registered mail?

The data cannot be altered during transmission without this being detected. Indeed, the data is secured by an advanced electronic signature or seal upon sending or receipt. Finally, the date and time of sending and receipt are denoted by a qualified electronic time stamp.

How legally valid is a QeRDS?

A crucial question. Digital registered mail enjoys full legal validity. Indeed, the legal validity of secure QeRDS mail cannot be disputed. The eIDAS asserts that it can be used as evidence in legal proceedings precisely because it’s electronic.

In addition, according to the regulation, the presumption applies that the integrity of the ‘data’ itself is sound, as is its sending and receipt, and that the service provider has accurately recorded the date and time that the digital registered mail was sent and received.

And what about its legal value?

A digital registered mail has the same legal value as a physical registered letter. If you send a registered mail, you receive a notification and validation report. This provides insight into every stage of the process: from the sending of the mail to its subsequent receipt and opening.

The validation report replaces the traditional receipt that you receive with a physical registered mail and can be used as legal evidence. However there’s one important difference: the traditional receipt is linked to the envelope, whilst the notification and validation report is linked to the contents of the mail.

In other words, a digital registered mail enables you to provide more evidence than a physical one: including what was in your letter.

Provided by qualified service providers

This makes digital registered mail 100% secure, reliable and legally valid. Or at least, on one condition. You obviously need to be 100% certain that whoever facilitates this mail on your behalf fully satisfies all eIDAS requirements.

A QeRDS can therefore only be sent by QTSPs (Qualified Trust Service Providers). To qualify, providers must first undergo an external audit. In the event that the auditor issues a positive recommendation, their file is sent to the Ministry of the Economy. This Federal Public Service determines whether to award the service provider with QTSP certification. The service provider subsequently undergoes an audit at least once every 24 months to ensure that it and its trust services continue to satisfy eIDAS requirements.

Send your registered digital mail via EasyPost!

We recently acquired our QeRDS licence following a rigorous audit. This means that you can now send your digital registered mail via EasyPost. You can do this using a simple, secure and 100% reliable process via our EasyPost Connect digital platform. You can even choose to automate the process, by having it seamlessly integrated into your shipment processes.