--- title: Judge Rules Emoji Misleading in Court description: A potential renter and landlord have settled their miscommunications in small claims court after the renters used emojis in "bad faith." canonical: https://time.com/4788547/emoji-court-ruling/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-22T18:34:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:51.310Z og:title: Judge Rules a Couple Owes Money Because of 'Misleading' Emoji og:description: Be careful how you use emojis — or be prepared to pay for it in court og:url: https://time.com/4788547/emoji-court-ruling/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt524720828b108697/69889c03cd1bbaef207017c1/emoji.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3900 og:image:height: 2194 og:image:alt: FRANCE-TELECOM-MEDIA-INTERNET-MARKETING og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Judge Rules a Couple Owes Money Because of 'Misleading' Emoji twitter:description: Be careful how you use emojis — or be prepared to pay for it in court twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt524720828b108697/69889c03cd1bbaef207017c1/emoji.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Judge Rules Couple Owes Money After Using These 'Misleading' Optimistic Emoji > Sponsored content. 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AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL MEDINA (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images) TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY TUPAC POINTU A picture shows emoji characters also known as emoticons on the screens of two mobile phones in Paris on August 6, 2015\. Forget traditional banners and promotional videos, brands are turning to emojis to communicate with their Generation Z target audience. AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL MEDINA (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)Miguel Medina—AFP/Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner May 22, 2017 6:34 PM UTC Be careful what you say with [emojis](http://time.com/4547514/emojis-museum-of-modern-art/) in text messages — because the [expressive little emoticons](http://time.com/4408803/how-emoji-have-completely-revolutionized-communication-from-tears-of-joy-to-bacon/) could be used against you in a court of law. That’s the lesson learned by one Israeli couple after they engaged in an emoji-filled text exchange with a potential landlord, and could now [pay up to $2,200](http://room404.net/eng/%F0%9F%92%83%F0%9F%8F%BB%F0%9F%91%AF%E2%80%8D%E2%9C%8C%EF%B8%8F%E2%98%84%EF%B8%8F%F0%9F%90%BF%EF%B8%8F%F0%9F%8D%BE-show-intention-to-rent-apartment-says-judge/) for the ensuing miscommunications. According to [_Engadget_](https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/21/israeli-court-emojis/), landlord Yaniv Dahan received a message from Yarden Rosen after listing a property as a classified ad online. “Good morning 😊 Interested in the house 💃🏻👯‍✌️☄️… Just need to discuss the details… When’s a good time for you?” they texted to him. Dahan says he then removed the listing from the site, thinking he had found a promising lead. But it turned out that the couple were not ready to commit to his option in the end. Dahan ultimately chose to take the couple to small claims court, where a judge determined the emoji were misleading. “The \[emoji laden\] text message sent by Defendant 2 on June 5, 2016, was accompanied by quite a few symbols… These icons convey great optimism. Although this message did not constitute a binding contract between the parties, this message naturally led to the Plaintiff’s great reliance on the defendants’ desire to rent his apartment,” the judge determined, citing the “bad faith” of the defendants. “Even towards the end of the negotiations… Defendant 2 used ‘smiley’ symbols. These symbols, which convey to the other side that everything is in order, were misleading.” Note to all emoji users: tread carefully in the valley of the pictographic. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4788547/emoji-court-ruling/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4788547/emoji-court-ruling/"},"headline":"Judge Rules Couple Owes Money After Using These 'Misleading' Optimistic Emoji","datePublished":"2017-05-22T18:34:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:51.310Z","description":"A potential renter and landlord have settled their miscommunications in small claims court after the renters used emojis in \"bad faith.\"","url":"https://time.com/4788547/emoji-court-ruling/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Technology","viral","Bizarre","emoji"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt524720828b108697/69889c03cd1bbaef207017c1/emoji.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt524720828b108697/69889c03cd1bbaef207017c1/emoji.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FRANCE-TELECOM-MEDIA-INTERNET-MARKETING","caption":"FRANCE-TELECOM-MEDIA-INTERNET-MARKETING","creditText":"Miguel Medina—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4788547/emoji-court-ruling/","name":"Judge Rules Couple Owes Money After Using These 'Misleading' Optimistic Emoji"}}]}] ```