Qualified electronic certificates are valid only for the objects for which they were issued.
Devices used to design and verify qualified certificates shall, from the technological stand point, be neutral, standardized, certified and interoperable.
Certification authorities are responsible for prejudice caused to people who relied on the certificates they presented as qualified in the case where:
- The information contained in the certificate on the date of its issuance was inaccurate;
- The data prescribed such that certificate could be considered as qualified was incomplete;
- The issuance of the qualified certificate did not give rise to the verification that the signatory holds the private convention corresponding to the public convention of the certificate;
- Certification authorities and certification service providers, as the case may be, have not registered the repeal of the qualified certificate and placed this information at the disposal third parties.
Certification authorities will not be responsible for the prejudice caused by the use of the qualified certificate that exceeds the limits fixed for its use or the value of transactions for which it can be used, provided that such limits appear in the qualified certificate and are accessible to users.
Certification authorities must justify adequate financial guarantee, allocated particularly for the payment of sums they may owe people who relied logically on the qualified certificates they issue or an insurance that guarantees the pecuniary consequences of their civil professional responsibility.