In a very recent ruling, the Italian Supreme Court confirmed that SMS and WhatsApp messages have probative value in civil proceedings, meaning that they can be submitted as evidence in court in the form of “screenshots” (there is no violation of privacy if one is the recipient of such messages), and the judge can assess them for decision-making purposes.

As is widely known, the use of WhatsApp, in particular, has become almost predominant in personal communications, and, thanks to the ability to use the application on a computer, its use is also increasing in professional contexts, including for document exchange.

The use of chats as legal evidence is now quite common in proceedings, especially in separation or divorce cases, but the recent widespread use of the platform is extending its evidentiary function even in commercial cases.

The Italian Supreme Court has therefore stated that WhatsApp messages and SMS stored in the memory of a mobile phone can be used as documentary evidence and, as such, can be legitimately obtained through photographic reproduction, allowing for the full admissibility of messages extracted from a WhatsApp “chat” by copying the corresponding “screenshots”, provided the origin and reliability of the messages are verified.

In particular, the Supreme Court states that a WhatsApp message constitutes an electronic document containing the digital representation of acts, facts, or legally relevant data, which, even without a signature, “falls under the category of digital reproductions and mechanical representations as per Article 2712 of the Civil Code, and therefore serves as full proof of the facts and things represented, unless the party against whom it is produced disputes its accuracy in relation to the facts or the things themselves.”

 

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