Off Peak

August 2000

E-Sign: Messier Than Ink?

By Regina R. Johnson

What the digital signature law left unresolved could impede energy marketers' plans for widespread electronic signups.

With the insertion of an encoded card into a computer and a few strokes of the keyboard, President Clinton on June 30 electronically signed into law the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, or "e-sign bill." But first he scrawled his "wet signature" the old-fashioned way--a reminder that widespread acceptance and use of digital signatures still may be some years off.

Before the federal law was signed, the digital signature already was a legal substitute for its paper counterpart in more than 40 states, and energy retailers in deregulated markets have been among the first companies to build businesses around digital contracting. But according to Frank Prince, senior analyst in eBusiness infrastructures at Forrester Research Inc., such enterprises may be hindered in the short term. He predicts that implementation problems and legal challenges will limit the law's impact on business-to-consumer eCommerce for at least five years.