Nová vyhláška o ověřování podpisu na dokumentu v elektronické podobě

New Decree on Verification of Signatures on Electronic Documents

The Ministry of Justice is preparing a new decree regulating the procedure for lawyers to verify the authenticity of signatures on electronic documents. The legal framework for this regulation is based on the amendment to the Advocacy Act effective from July 1, 2025, although the verification of electronic signatures has been enshrined in the law since 2022. However, it has not been practically possible to carry out such verification so far, as the implementing decree detailing this process was missing.

Verification of the authenticity of electronic signatures applies not only to guaranteed electronic signatures based on a certificate for electronic signatures but also simple electronic signatures, i.e., signatures without any technical security or verification mechanism. For guaranteed electronic signatures, only the integrity of the document will be checked, not the trustworthiness of the certificate or its expiration.

The decree introduces a requirement that documents with electronic signatures must be in PDF/A format and not exceed 50 MB in size. They must also not contain any malicious code that could harm the lawyer's information system or software. If the PDF/A-3 format is used, the electronically signed document must not contain a document in a data format that is not the output data format according to the legal regulation governing record-keeping services, or contain other embedded documents.

Lawyers will declare the authenticity of the signature by attaching a clause containing the imprint of the legalized document. This document will be provided with the lawyer's qualified electronic signature and qualified electronic timestamp. The client can then retrieve the verified document either through a data box or via Czech POINT.

According to the explanatory memorandum to the decree, the document with verified signatures, any signature sheet, and documents containing the authenticity clause are to be separate files in PDF format. The recipient of these files, before being able to rely on the verified signatures according to the individual documents containing clauses with the declaration of the authenticity of the signature, will need to:

• Verify the validity of the qualified electronic signatures of the individual documents containing clauses with the declaration of the authenticity of the signature;
• Verify the validity of the links between the documents containing the authenticity clauses and the document with the declaration of the authenticity of the signature, or the signature sheet (i.e., compare the imprints of the legalized document or the signature sheet with the imprints stated in the documents containing clauses with the declaration of the authenticity of the signature and the signature sheet).

The decree is planned to come into effect on July 1, 2025.

If you are interested in further information, please contact the authors of the article or other members of the EY team you collaborate with.

Authors:

Jan Turek

Martin Reck