WhatsApp Messages and Private Communications

On July 1, 2017, the Third Court of Appeals in Civil, Commercial, Mining and Tax Matters of the Province of Mendoza (the “Court”) upheld the value of Whatsapp messages as proof in a claim brought by a real estate broker regarding payment of his fees (re: “Llopart Ricardo José v. Lombardich Luis et al re/ Habeas Data”, Docket No. 253.184/52.190, July 1, 2017).

The decision of the Court of first instance did not admit WhatsApp messages sent by the parties as proof. However, it did acknowledge the evidentiary value of other kinds of communications.

On appeal, the Court argued that the value attributed to private communications should analogically extend to other kind of correspondence exiting between the parties, in this particular case to emails and WhatsApp messages. This is based on a harmonic interpretation of Section 1036 of the Civil Code and Section 318 of the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code, which considers any type of correspondence as means of evidence, regardless of the medium in which it is created.

In addition, the Court referred to case law that established the value of emails and other kind of electronic communications as proof. Furthermore, it considered that people tend to communicate through electronic means nowadays, and rarely resort to written communications.

This is the first ruling in Argentina that explicitly refers to the evidentiary value of WhatsApp messages, stating that they should be considered equal to any other electronic communication and granting them probative value in trial.