ZertES and eIDAS from a single source: What the new certification means for companies

Digital signatures today are rarely limited to a single jurisdiction. Contracts are concluded across borders, platforms automate approval processes, and digital evidence must remain verifiable even years later.

For companies with ties to the EU and Switzerland, this raises a central question: On which legal and technical trust basis are electronic signatures, seals and certificates issued?

In the EU, the eIDAS Regulation provides the regulatory framework. In Switzerland, ZertES applies: the Federal Act on Certification Services in the Field of Electronic Signatures and Other Applications of Digital Certificates.

At SIGN8, we are already eIDAS-certified and now also ZertES-certified. This makes SIGN8 one of the five ZertES-certified providers in Switzerland and part of a small group of providers that can offer qualified trust services under both eIDAS and ZertES. Our ZertES certification covers certification services for:

• qualified electronic signatures
• regulated electronic seals

For companies, this means that signature and seal processes can be built on a trust infrastructure that supports requirements in both the EU and Switzerland.

Many digital business processes today run across national borders. For example, a contract may be created in Germany, reviewed in Switzerland and approved by several entities within an international corporate group.

Platform providers from the EU provide signature processes for Swiss customers. Regulated companies must secure digital evidence in a traceable way over the long term.

In such scenarios, simply signing a document electronically is not enough. What matters is whether the signature or seal is based on a recognised certification service, whether identities have been reliably verified and whether the underlying infrastructure meets regulatory requirements.

Companies with processes in the EU and Switzerland must take two trust frameworks into account: eIDAS in the European Union and ZertES in Switzerland. Both regulatory frameworks pursue the same objective: creating trust in digital transactions. At the same time, they apply in different jurisdictions and come with their own requirements.

With eIDAS and ZertES from a single source, companies can build their signature and trust strategy more consistently. Instead of using separate infrastructures or different providers for different markets, digital trust processes can be planned and integrated more centrally.

This is particularly relevant for:

• contract processes between EU and Swiss entities
• digital approvals in international corporate groups
• platforms with customers in multiple markets
• regulated processes in finance, healthcare, energy or public administration
• digital evidence, certificates and institutional documents
• API-based workflows for software providers and platform operators

For companies, the question is not only whether a signature is legally compliant. It is equally important how signature, seal and certificate processes can be technically integrated into existing workflows.

We support different deployment models:

• via the Signing Portal for directly usable signature processes
• via a Cloud Signature Consortium (CSC)-compatible API for integration into proprietary applications and platforms
• via trust infrastructure as an on-premises solution when organisations require a dedicated environment

This enables companies not only to use qualified electronic signatures, electronic seals and certificate processes manually, but also to integrate them directly into existing systems, portals and specialist applications.

A qualified electronic signature is more than a signature field in a PDF. An electronic seal is also more than a digital stamp.

Behind it stands a certified trust infrastructure with technical and organisational requirements, including for:

• identification and authentication
• issuing and managing certificates
• key management
• access control
• signature and seal activation
• logging and auditability
• evidence management
• operation of secure trust centre and PKI infrastructure

For productive business processes, this foundation is crucial. Companies need not only individual signatures, but secure, scalable and traceable trust processes that can be integrated into their digital process landscape.

For companies, it is also crucial to know who actually provides the underlying trust services.

We are a trust service provider. The signature and seal processes can therefore be mapped within the signature environment. Documents do not have to be forwarded to an additional third-party provider to create the signature or seal.

This reduces dependencies, simplifies technical architectures and provides greater control over security- and compliance-relevant processes. This is a relevant advantage especially for regulated industries, platform providers and organisations with high data protection and governance requirements.

With ZertES certification, we are extending our existing eIDAS-certified trust infrastructure to the Swiss jurisdiction. At SIGN8, we are now one of the five ZertES-certified providers in Switzerland and can provide qualified trust services under both eIDAS and ZertES.

For companies, this means greater regulatory certainty, more technical flexibility and an integrable trust infrastructure for digital signatures, electronic seals and certificate processes in the EU and Switzerland.

Interested in qualified signatures, seals and certificates under eIDAS or ZertES? We would be happy to analyse which trust services are suitable for your company-specific use case.