Regardless of whether an ordinary letter, fax, e-mail etc. is used for the transmission of (contractual) declarations and/or documents, the respective receipt and/or content of the contractual declaration can always be disputed at the outset. Insofar as no special formal requirements – e-mail does not fulfill the written form! – the delivery of contractual declarations by e-mail is a practical means of transmission. The following should be noted:

Access by e-mail and proof thereof

A declaration by e-mail is deemed to have been received in business transactions if it reaches the recipient immediately after being sent.

The recipient must then take note of it during normal business hours, i.e. retrieve it from their mail server. If he does not do this, the mail is still deemed to have been received at the latest at the close of business. It is therefore sufficient for the recipient to retrieve it.

Briefly: When you send an e-mail, it is generally deemed to have been received on the same day, regardless of whether the recipient has read it.

However, the fact of receipt (retrievability) cannot be reliably proven solely by a “mere” receipt message of the mail protocol. The read confirmation function of the mail system, for example, can help here. If you have such a confirmation, it should be very difficult for your business partner to deny access. However:

What happens if the recipient answers NO to the mail system’s question: “Do you want to send a read confirmation”? This could lead to uncertainty. It is therefore better – if available in your mail program – to use the “Request delivery confirmation” function. In this case, the mail system will send you a confirmation itself. In my opinion, this “transmission confirmation” should generally provide successful proof in practice.

The delivery of contractual declarations by e-mail together with e-mail attachments

With regard to e-mail attachments, the above applies in principle. However, there tend to be a few uncertainties here, e.g. it could be claimed that the attachment was missing or could not be opened. It could also be claimed that the attachment was not opened “for security reasons” (risk of viruses etc.).

It is therefore advisable to include the main content of any attachments in the email itself. However, this is not absolutely necessary. In any case, you would expect the business partner to point this out if there are problems opening attachments.