Electronic Seal (e-Seal)

An electronic seal is a concept defined in eIDAS (Regulation (EU) No 910/2014), the European Union's framework for electronic identification and trust services. While an electronic signature is created by a natural person, an electronic seal is created by a legal person, meaning a company, government body, or other organization. Its purpose is to give assurance about two things: where a document came from (origin) and whether it has changed since it was sealed (integrity).

Think of it as the digital equivalent of a company stamp or corporate letterhead rather than an individual's handwritten name. A bank statement, an invoice, a tax notice, or an official certificate might carry an electronic seal to show it was genuinely issued by the organization in question. Because the seal is tied to the organization itself, it does not express the intent of any one employee to agree to terms; it authenticates the issuer and protects the content.

eIDAS defines three levels of electronic seal that mirror the signature tiers. A basic electronic seal is the general category. An advanced electronic seal must be uniquely linked to the creating organization, capable of identifying it, and created so that any later change to the sealed data is detectable. A qualified electronic seal is an advanced seal created using a qualified electronic seal creation device and based on a qualified certificate for electronic seals issued by a qualified trust service provider. A qualified electronic seal enjoys the presumption of integrity of the data and of correctness of the origin of that data within the EU.

Electronic seals are mostly relevant to organizations operating under European law and to high-volume, automated document issuance. For an individual signing a contract, an electronic signature is the right tool, not a seal. sign.pink focuses on getting documents signed by people and giving every document a tamper-evident audit trail, which serves the practical need that a seal addresses for organizations: showing a document is authentic and unaltered.

Examples

• A European bank issues monthly account statements that each carry a qualified electronic seal, so customers can verify the statement truly came from the bank and was not edited.
• A government tax authority applies an electronic seal to issued certificates, evidencing the document's origin and integrity without any single official needing to sign each one.
• A company's billing system automatically seals every outgoing invoice, confirming the invoice was issued by that legal entity and has not been tampered with in transit.