Electronic Signature Laws & Regulations - Denmark

Electronic signatures and certificate-based digital signatures are commonly used in Denmark and a number of Danish court cases have looked at the validity of electronic signatures.

The key laws in Denmark that regulate the use of electronic signatures include:

• The Act on Supplementing Provisions which regulates the enforcement of the provisions of the eIDAS Regulation; and
• The Danish Contracts Act which governs the conclusion of contracts in general, regardless of the medium on which the contract is concluded.

The enforcement of contracts signed electronically in Denmark mainly comes down to the “will of the parties” and whether that will can be proven before the courts. Generally, Danish courts are free to assess all evidence presented before them. In practice, proving the validity of an electronic signature may happen by presenting the signed document together with the correspondence between the parties. Thus, electronic signatures that include identity validation, such as electronic signatures backed by digital certificates, will normally be considered to provide stronger evidence of validity.

In a report from the Danish Ministry of Justice, the Ministry states that electronic signatures complying with the Public Certificates to Electronic Services (the OCES standard) should be considered equivalent to a wet signature. Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) as defined by the eIDAS regulation are already considered equivalent to a wet signature.

In Denmark, the following documents are only directly executable before the Danish Enforcement Courts if they are signed by an Advanced Electronic Signature (AES) or a QES with a security level considered “substantial” or “high” under Article 8 of the eIDAS Regulation or the Danish OCES standard:

• Out of court settlements;
• Instruments of debt in which it is explicitly stated that the document can be used as basis for enforcement proceedings without a court order or other basis of enforcement;
• Agreement reserving ownership until payment is made (e.g., a conditional sale).

Electronic signatures are often used in Denmark in conjunction with the Danish National eID solution, MitID, and either the NemLog-in3 infrastructure or another certified MitID broker (see below).

MitID functions as the standard secure login method for online services and is used exclusively for authentication. It complies with the eIDAS Regulation as a qualified trust service, and is widely adopted by public authorities, banks and other service providers. The actual execution of digital signatures is handled separately – either through NemLog-in3, which is primarily used by public organisations, or through another certified MitID broker, typically used by private service providers.

NemLog-in3 is a shared digital infrastructure that enables individuals and organisations to securely access and interact with digital services using MitID. Certified MitID brokers serve as authorised intermediaries, facilitating secure integration between service providers and the MitID system for digital signing.

Both MitID and NemLog-in3 are administered by the Danish Agency for Digitalisation (Digitaliseringsstyrelsen).

Denmark also has a number of standards that implement the requirements of the eIDAS regulation, such as the Public Certificates to Electronic Services (the OCES standard) and the National Standard for the Security Level of Identities (the NSIS standard). The standards are relevant primarily to the MitID solution. The NSIS standard implements the security levels described in Article 8 of the eIDAS regulation.

Special Considerations

Transacting with public sector entities
Digital interaction with Danish public authorities often requires the use of MitID.

Use cases that generally require a traditional signature
In Denmark, the following documents cannot be signed or executed electronically:

• Bearer bonds
• Wills or other documents that require notarization or witnessing.