Are electronic signatures legal in Brazil?

Two laws, two jobs

• Medida Provisória 2.200-2 of August 24, 2001 created ICP-Brasil, the national public-key infrastructure. Article 10 says electronic documents count as public or private documents for all legal purposes, and statements signed with an ICP-Brasil certificate are presumed true as to their signers (art. 10 §1).
• Article 10 §2 of the same act keeps other methods valid: proof of authorship and integrity by other means, including certificates outside ICP-Brasil, works when the parties accept it as valid or the person it's used against accepts it. Most private e-signing in Brazil rests on this paragraph.
• Law 14.063 of September 23, 2020 defines simple, advanced and qualified signatures for dealings with public bodies, certain company acts and health documents. The sole paragraph of its article 2 says those rules don't apply to court proceedings or to dealings between private persons and companies.

Proving a signature in court

The Code of Civil Procedure accepts a document as authentic when its author is identified by any lawful means of certification, electronic ones included (art. 411, II). If the other side challenges it, the burden of proving authenticity falls on the party that produced the document (art. 429, II), so the record behind the signature matters.

Law 14.620/2023 added a useful rule for collections. Enforceable instruments created electronically, the contracts a creditor can enforce without first suing on them, accept any form of electronic signature provided by law, and the witnesses' signatures usually required can be dropped when a signature provider confirms the document's integrity (CPC art. 784 §4).

What needs more than a simple signature

• Real estate deeds. A public deed (escritura pública) is essential for creating, transferring or giving up rights in real estate worth more than thirty times the highest minimum wage (Civil Code art. 108). Notaries can draw it up electronically through the e-Notariado platform, with a recorded videoconference and the parties' digital signatures (CNJ Provimento 149/2023, arts. 284–287).
• Real estate acts with public bodies need a qualified signature (Law 14.063, art. 5 §2). Since 2023, real estate lenders and their customers may use advanced or qualified signatures on private instruments that carry the force of a public deed (art. 17-A).
• Prescriptions for controlled drugs and medical certificates are valid electronically only with a qualified signature (Law 14.063, art. 13).
• Public wills are written by a notary in the notary's book (Civil Code art. 1.864).

Where SignMaster fits in Brazil

SignMaster provides simple electronic signatures with an audit trail and doesn't issue ICP-Brasil certificates. Under art. 10 §2 that suits private contracts both sides accept: service agreements, quotes, NDAs, supplier terms and leases. The signed PDF ends with a certificate of completion recording each signer's email, IP address and timestamps, and a SHA-256 fingerprint shows whether a file changed, the kind of evidence that carries the burden under art. 429.