What is a qualified electronic seal and when does my business need one?

Under Article 3(25) of the eIDAS Regulation, an electronic seal is the counterpart to the signature for legal persons. Where a signature expresses the intent of a natural person, a seal confirms the origin and integrity of a document on behalf of the organisation.

Under Article 35(2) eIDAS, a qualified electronic seal enjoys a presumption of the integrity of the data and of the correctness of its origin. A practical advantage: a seal is not bound to an individual and therefore remains usable unchanged when staff move on.

Here's how a qualified electronic seal works:

• Organisation certificate: A qualified trust service provider issues a seal certificate to the legal person rather than to an individual.
• Verification of the organisation: Before issuance, the existence and representation arrangements of the organisation are verified against official registers.
• Automated application: The seal is applied without manual release — triggered directly from the business system or via an API.
• High throughput: Because no individual authorisation is required, very large volumes can be sealed in a short time.
• Legal presumption: Recipients may assume unchanged content and correct origin unless the contrary is shown.
• Verifiability: As with signatures, the seal is embedded in PAdES format with a timestamp and validation data.

Typical use cases for seals:

• Outgoing invoices: Invoices and credit notes at scale, with proof of origin from your own billing system.
• Notices and attestations: Official notices, certificates and confirmations generated automatically.
• Policies and account statements: Insurance policies, statements and periodic communications to large recipient groups.
• Machine-generated records: Reports, logs and exports whose origin and integrity must be demonstrable.

primesign SEAL applies qualified electronic seals automatically and at high throughput, including directly from existing applications via the signing APIs. In many organisations the combination makes sense: seals for automated high-volume dispatch, qualified signatures for contracting processes involving individuals.