Which signature do I choose?
It depends on how important the document is and what the law requires.
Equivalent to a click
Legal effect depends on context and evidence
Recognised across the entire European Union
In short
- Deeds requiring authentic form (real estate sales, mortgages, donations): notary only - electronic signatures do not apply.
- The qualified signature (QES) has, by law, the effect of a handwritten signature - at any time, for any document that does not require authentic form.
- Public institutions (tax portal, trade register, public procurement, employee register) accept practically only QES for electronic filings.
- Contracts with no special form requirement can be signed at any level - only the evidential weight differs.
1The three levels
A click, a tick box, a name typed into a form. It cannot be rejected as evidence merely because it is electronic, but it does not automatically have the effect of a handwritten signature.
Uniquely linked to the signatory, identifying them and detecting any subsequent change to the document. For an advanced signature to be valid as such, the provider must be listed in the register of non-qualified trust service providers kept by ADR (Law 214/2024, art. 21) - otherwise, technically, you have no guarantee that the service meets the legal requirements of an AES. It produces the legal effect of a handwritten signature in the limited cases set out in Law 214/2024, art. 4 (5)-(8) (if the signature is issued by a public institution or by a qualified electronic service provider, if the document is recognised by the party it is invoked against, or if the parties have expressly agreed to confer the legal effects of a handwritten signature).
An AES created with a qualified device, based on a certificate issued by a Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) - such as Simplifi. The only level with guaranteed legal effect, with no further conditions: it always produces the effect of a handwritten signature. You can verify any qualified provider in the Trusted List published by ADR, or at European level in the European Commission's official aggregator (EUTL, TL Browser). In practice, a valid qualified signature shows a green tick in Adobe Acrobat/Reader - or can be verified independently with the European Commission's free tool, DSS (Digital Signature Services).
Legal framework: the eIDAS Regulation (EU 910/2014, updated by eIDAS 2.0) and Law no. 214/2024, which fully replaced Law no. 455/2001.
2The decision rule
For deeds whose valid conclusion requires authentic form under the law - real estate sales, mortgages, donations - the provisions of Law 214/2024 do not apply. Such legal deeds can only be concluded in authentic form, before a notary public.
A QES is legally equivalent to a handwritten signature: anything you can sign with a pen, you can sign with a qualified signature. Notarial authentication, however, is a separate procedure that goes beyond the signature itself.
If the law requires authentic form, the question of an electronic signature does not arise - you go to a notary, regardless of level.
In all other cases you always have an option with identical legal value: sign by hand or sign with a qualified signature. The two are equivalent by law, at any time, for any document.
For some documents the law also allows an advanced or simple signature - these are marked in the checklist below. That does not mean they carry the same legal value as a qualified signature - only that the law recognises their effects.
Beyond what the law explicitly requires, the decision is yours: how important the document is to you, and how likely it is that someone will contest it later.
3Checklist: signature levels allowed by law, per document
allowed by law not allowedAsterisks refer to the notes under each table.
3.1. Employment relations
| Document / situation | SES | AES | QES | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual employment contract; amendment, suspension, termination | Labour Code, art. 16 (1¹) | |||
| Other employment documents (job descriptions, notifications) | Labour Code, art. 16 (1²) | |||
| Individual OSH training record (occupational safety and health) | * | GD 1425/2006, art. 81 (3¹), as amended by GD 259/2022 | ||
| Fire safety / emergency training record | ** | Law 214/2024, art. 4 (3); official IGSU position |
* Subject to the internal regulations / collective labour agreement.
** The law does not explicitly exclude the simple signature, but the supervisory authority (IGSU) has officially confirmed only advanced or qualified signatures as producing an effect equivalent to a handwritten signature for these records. We recommend at least an advanced signature.
3.2. Official registers and public procurement
| Document / situation | SES | AES | QES | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tender, ESPD and other SEAP/SICAP documents | * | Law 98/2016; GD 395/2016, art. 60 (4); Law 214/2024, art. 34 (5) | ||
| Trade Register registration application | Law 265/2022, art. 82 (1) | |||
| Articles of association filed electronically with ONRC | Law 265/2022, art. 82 (2) | |||
| Electronic filing with ONRC | Law 265/2022, art. 83 |
* GD 395/2016 still uses the old term from Law 455/2001: "advanced electronic signature based on a qualified certificate". Law 214/2024, art. 34 (5) explicitly clarifies the equivalence: "advanced" on its own means today advanced, but "advanced based on a qualified certificate" (the exact wording used by GD 395/2016) means today qualified. So although the SEAP law does not use the word "qualified", the effective requirement is a qualified signature.
3.3. Filings and applications to public institutions
Here the pattern is very consistent: public institutions almost never accept anything other than a qualified signature for their own electronic filings.
| Document / situation | SES | AES | QES | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Access/identification in SPV - companies, sole traders, liberal professions | Fiscal Procedure Code, art. 80; OPANAF 1090/2022 | |||
| Tax returns filed electronically (D112, D300, D301 etc.) | OPANAF 2213/2025, Annex 1, point 2 | |||
| Annual financial statements filed via the e-Guvernare portal | * | Accounting Law 82/1991, art. 28 (10) and (13); GEO 138/2024 | ||
| General employee register (REGES-ONLINE, formerly Revisal) | OMM 1107/2025, points 14-15 (b) | |||
| Environmental Fund declarations (AFM, eTAX service) | Ministry of Environment Order no. 572/2019 | |||
| APIA single payment application (agricultural subsidies, IPA-Online) | IPA-Online user instructions (APIA); general framework Law 214/2024 | |||
| Fire safety permit/authorisation applications (ISU) | Law 307/2006 republished, art. 30³ (1¹); GEO 140/2020, art. 3 (b) |
* The qualified signature is required for submitting the file through the portal, applied by the person filing (usually the accountant or authorised representative). Under the Accounting Law, the document itself must be signed both by the legal representative and by the preparer - those two signatures may also be handwritten and scanned into the submitted archive. In this case, however, the originally handwritten-signed document must always be at hand if requested (the scanned version being considered a copy).
3.4. Commercial and civil contracts
Where the law does not require a special form for the validity or enforceability of the contract, it may be signed with any of the three signature types (though evidential weight differs).
| Document / situation | SES | AES | QES | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B2B contracts with no special form requirement | Law 214/2024, art. 4 (9)-(10) | |||
| Civil contracts with no special form requirement | Civil Code, art. 1178-1179 |
Cannot find your document in the list, or do you work with credit agreements, bills of exchange, promissory notes or other instruments with a special regime? For these, the law generally requires only written form on a durable medium, without prescribing a signature level - the level used in practice depends on the institution (banks, for instance, often require a qualified signature because credit agreements are enforceable titles). We recommend consulting a specialist before signing.