Article 18. Qualified electronic trust service of creation, verification and validation of a qualified electronic signature or seal

1. A qualified electronic trust service of creation, verification and validation of a qualified electronic signature or seal is provided by a qualified provider of electronic trust services and includes:

providing users of electronic trust services with qualified electronic signature or seal tools for generating key pairs and/or creating qualified electronic signatures or seals, and/or verifying qualified electronic signatures or seals, and/or storing the private key of a qualified electronic signature or seal;

technical support and maintenance of the provided means of a qualified electronic signature or seal.

2. A qualified electronic signature or seal is considered to have been verified and validated if:

the validation of a qualified electronic signature or seal was carried out using a qualified electronic signature or seal creation device;

the validation established that, in accordance with the requirements of this Law, at the time of creation of a qualified electronic signature or seal, the qualified certificate of electronic signature or seal of the signatory or creator of the electronic seal was valid;

identification of the signer or creator of the electronic seal was fulfilled with the help of a qualified electronic signature or seal certificate;

during the validation of a qualified electronic signature or seal certificate, confirmation is received that the private key belonging to the signatory or creator of the electronic seal resides in a qualified electronic signature or seal creation device;

during the validation, the integrity of the electronic data in electronic form with which this qualified electronic signature or seal is associated is confirmed.

3. An electronic signature or seal cannot be invalidated and deprived of the opportunity to be considered as evidence in court cases solely on the grounds that it has an electronic form or does not meet the requirements for a qualified electronic signature or seal.

4. A qualified electronic signature has the same legal force as a handwritten signature and is presumed to correspond to a handwritten signature.

5. A qualified electronic seal has a presumption of the integrity of the electronic data and the authenticity of the origin of the electronic data with which it is associated.

6. Mandatory requirements for the provision of a qualified electronic trust service for the creation, verification and validation of qualified electronic signatures or seals, as well as the procedure for verifying their compliance, are established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

7. Issuance and circulation of means of electronic identification with the functions of a qualified electronic signature as documents certifying identity are regulated by legislation.

The requirements for qualified electronic trust services, which are provided using means of electronic identification with the functions of a qualified electronic signature as documents certifying identity, are established by the "Law on electroniv identification and trust services" and other legislative acts.