Digital deliveries/mails
Understanding different types of digital deliveries: regular mail, ERDS and QERDS.
We distinguish 3 types of digital deliveries, based on different levels of
attachment alteration, electronic identification and legal weight.
BASIC
REGULAR MAIL OR
NORMAL E-MAILING
E.g., regular email with an attachment.
ADVANCED
ELECTRONIC REGISTERED DELIVERY
OR ERDS
E.g., digital version of a sealed letter.
HIGHLY ADVANCED
QUALIFIED ELECTRONIC REGISTERED DELIVERY
OR QERDS
E.g., digital version of a registered delivery
Go paperless! Deliver contracts digitally and legally.
Digital contracts contain information intended exclusively for the eyes of the addressee. So the content of an e-mail or attachment must not be accessible to people with false intent, given that even minor alterations can have major consequences.
electronic registered delivery or ERDS
As sender, you have no guarantee that the content and recipients of your e-mail will not be altered.
- The content cannot be altered
- No identity verification
- Receive an evidence report
qualified electronic registered delivery or QERDS
As sender, digitalize your official paper registered delivery, go paperless and stay compliant with the law.
- The content cannot be altered
- Identity verification
- Receive an evidence report; prove that there was a delivery of content, on a specific time and date to a specific person.
Digitalize and secure your communications with ERDS and QERDS
We know it can be a bit overwhelming if it's first time you're hearing about ERDS and QERDS.
We have a very clear overview of everything you need to know to decide on the type of registered delivery - ERDS or QERDS - you need.
The biggest difference between regular email and secure email is the eIDAS legal framework.
Indeed, sending a 'regular' email has no legal value, since neither the sender nor the recipient can know whether the attachment has been manipulated by a third party in transit. In theory, an invoice sent by e-mail can simply be refused by the recipient.
EIDAS ensures that you can create an ERDS or QERDS article to give legal weight to your digital data transfer.
Advantages of ERDS and QERDS
CONTENT AND/OR ATTACHMENT
CANNOT BE ALTERED
RECIPIENTS
CANNOT BE CHANGED
RECIPIENT(S) ARE OBLIGATED
TO ACCEPT OR DECLINE
RECEIVE AN EVIDENCE REPORT
OF YOUR QERDS
Compared to document sealing?
Basically an electronic seal is a certificate that is linked to a company instead of a person.
In Belgium, the qualified electronic seal gets the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature of the natural person who represents the legal person that created the seal. This means that, apart from the authentication and integrity of the seal (see eIDAS) also non-repudiation is ensured.