An electronic seal is the organisational counterpart to a signature. A legal entity creates it rather than a person, and it proves the origin and integrity of a document that entity issued.
A signature expresses a person’s intent to be bound. A seal says a document genuinely came from an organisation and has not been altered since. Invoices, certificates, statements and attestations are the usual cases.
A qualified electronic seal uses a qualified certificate issued to the entity, and gets a presumption of integrity and correct origin in law, much as a qualified signature gets legal equivalence to handwriting.
In the proposed European Business Wallet, seals sit next to mandates. The mandate says who may act for the entity. The seal says a document came from it.
Defined in
eIDAS Regulation Art. 35 and 36
If you issue documents customers forward to third parties, invoices, certificates, confirmations, a seal turns "we sent this" into something the recipient can check without calling you.
Where you meet it
