Legal Force of the Qualified Signature and Stamp
The Law of Georgia on Electronic Document and Electronic Trusted Services lays the foundation of any compliance assessment: a qualified electronic signature has legal force equal to a personal handwritten signature, while a qualified electronic stamp affords the possibility of confirming the integrity and origin of an electronic document — these are presumed reliable unless the contrary is proven.
In administrative relations the rule is concrete: where a natural person or a private-law legal person chooses the electronic form of communication with an administrative organ and the document to be submitted requires a signature and/or stamp, the affixing of a qualified electronic signature and/or stamp is mandatory. This rule does not apply to a non-resident person, nor where Georgian legislation does not require a signature or stamp on the document. The administrative organ, for its part, is obliged to affix a qualified electronic signature and/or stamp on an electronic document, and the affixing of the qualified stamp suffices. Between an organ's structural units the qualified signature is not mandatory.
The decisive guarantee: in administrative proceedings and court proceedings it is impermissible to reject an electronic document solely on the ground that it is submitted in electronic form, and even its evidentiary force may not be denied merely because it fails to satisfy the requirements for a qualified signature or stamp. Where private persons agree otherwise, the electronic document and signature carry force equal to a material document and a personal signature between them.