Qualified Electronic Signatures vs. Qualified Electronic Seals under eIDAS

With the rise of digital transactions, trust services such as electronic signatures and electronic seals have become fundamental to legal certainty in the European Union. In this context, qualified electronic signatures and qualified electronic seals are often mentioned mentioned together, but there is an incorrect assumption that they have equivalent legal purposes.

Although both rely on qualified certificates issued by qualified trust service providers and are regulated under the eIDAS framework, they are designed to address fundamentally different legal needs. One expresses the legally binding intent of a natural person and the other guarantees the integrity of data issued by a legal entity.

With the evolution of the regulatory framework through eIDAS 2.0 and the introduction of the European Digital Identity Wallet, the importance of correctly attributing legal intent to identified individuals has become even more explicit. 

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