Bill 96 and Your Website: French-Language Rules for Businesses

Short answer: if your business carries on activities in Quebec, the commercial content on your website must be in French. You can also offer English or other languages, but the French version cannot be less complete or available on less favourable terms. Bill 96, adopted in 2022, did not invent this rule. It tightened it, and added stricter requirements for online contracts, terms of service and other documents customers sign.

This guide explains what the law says about websites, where the requirements are clear and where they are not, and how to structure a bilingual site properly.

What is Bill 96?

Bill 96 is the bill that became An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec (S.Q. 2022, c. 14). It received assent on June 1, 2022, and amended the Charter of the French language, the law usually called Bill 101. Most changes took effect on assent; others were phased in later, including the contract rules on June 1, 2023 and the signage and trademark rules on June 1, 2025. The Charter is administered by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), which handles complaints and can order businesses to comply.

Bill 96 touched many areas, including the language of work, government services and education. For businesses with a website, the parts that matter are the rules on commerce and business.

When your website must be in French

Section 52 of the Charter says catalogues, brochures, folders, commercial directories, order forms and similar documents available to the public must be drawn up in French, regardless of the medium. Bill 96 broadened that wording and added a second sentence: no one may make such a document available in another language if the French version is not available on terms that are at least as favourable.

The OQLF treats a business's website as one of these commercial publications. Its guidance for consumers states that commercial publications of businesses carrying on activities in Quebec must be in French, and that consumers have the right to access a complete French version of a business's website and French content on its social media. Section 50.2, added by Bill 96, reinforces this: a business that offers goods or services to consumers must respect their right to be informed and served in French.

The “at least as favourable” principle

This is the part that catches bilingual sites. It is not enough to have a French homepage and an English-only blog, product catalogue or support centre. In practice, “at least as favourable” means:

• French content is as complete as the English. If a product page, promotion or help article exists in English, it exists in French.
• French is not harder to reach. A visitor should not have to dig through menus to find it.
• French content is up to date. A French catalogue that lags months behind the English one is a problem.
• Prices and offers are the same. A discount advertised only in English is not on equal terms.

The language-of-commerce regulation allows separate French-only and other-language versions of these publications, provided the French version is available under no less favourable conditions of accessibility and quality. That is the legal basis for a site with separate /en and /fr sections.

Online contracts, terms of service and forms

Bill 96's biggest change for e-commerce is in section 55, which took effect on June 1, 2023. Contracts of adhesion, meaning standard contracts whose essential terms are set by one party and cannot be negotiated, must be drawn up in French. The parties can be bound by another language version only if the French version was provided first and the customer then expressly chose the other language.

Your online terms of service, terms of sale, subscription terms and account sign-up agreements are typically contracts of adhesion. According to the OQLF, for contracts concluded by technological means, the obligation to provide French first is met if the French standard clauses are given to the customer, or if the website or app is available in French and the French version of the contract is accessible there. In practice:

• Your terms of service, terms of sale and return policy need a French version.
• The checkout and sign-up flow should be available in French, with the French terms accessible from it.
• Documents related to the contract, such as order confirmations and cancellation forms, follow the same rule.
• You cannot charge the customer for providing the French version.

Order forms are also named in section 52, and section 57 requires invoices and receipts to be in French, or at least available in French on equally favourable terms. That covers your order confirmation emails and downloadable invoices.

E-commerce and product information

Section 51 requires inscriptions on a product, its packaging and documents supplied with it, including directions for use and warranty certificates, to be in French. Another language may accompany the French but cannot be more prominent. For an online store, put French product descriptions, specifications, sizing guides and warranty information on the product pages, not just on the box.

Trademarks and signage, briefly

New rules on public signs and trademarks took effect on June 1, 2025. A registered trademark in another language can still appear only in that language, but only if no French version is registered; where a trademark in another language appears on signs visible from outside premises, French must be markedly predominant. These rules mainly concern physical signage and product labels, but they are a reminder to check that your website's French pages do not rely on English slogans or descriptions where French is required.

Penalties

The OQLF can order a business to comply or stop a contravention within a set time. Failing to comply with an OQLF order is an offence, with fines of $3,000 to $30,000 for a business and $700 to $7,000 for an individual. Fines double for a second offence and triple for subsequent ones, and an offence that continues for more than one day is a separate offence for each day. Directors can be presumed to have committed an offence committed by their company unless they show due diligence.

These are not theoretical. The Quebec government regularly publishes notices of convictions, including a $3,000 fine in April 2026 against a clothing retailer that failed to comply with an order about commercial content on its website that was available only in a language other than French.

What if your business has no establishment in Quebec?

This is where you should be careful about what is settled and what is not.

• Clear: a business with an establishment in Quebec, whether a store, office or staff, that markets goods or services in Quebec must have its commercial website content in French.
• Clear: the OQLF frames the website rule around businesses carrying on activities in Quebec, and section 55 says the contract-of-adhesion rule does not apply to contracts used in relations with persons outside Quebec.
• Grey: a business based elsewhere in Canada with no Quebec establishment that sells online to Quebec customers. The Charter does not draw a clear line for this case, and how far the OQLF can enforce against an out-of-province business is not settled.

If Quebec is a real market for you, the practical answer is to treat the rules as applying. Quebec customers expect French, and the contract rules are the area where non-compliance has the most legal consequence. If you have no Quebec presence and do not target Quebec, get legal advice before assuming you are either fully exempt or fully covered.

How to build a bilingual site properly

Getting the structure right is mostly a technical job, and it is easier at build time than as a retrofit:

• Use separate URLs for each language, such as /fr/ and /en/ or a French domain, rather than swapping text with JavaScript. Search engines need a distinct URL to index each version.
• Add hreflang tags linking each page to its translation (fr-CA and en-CA), so Google shows the right version to the right searcher.
• Put a clear language switcher on every page that takes visitors to the equivalent page, not back to the homepage.
• Translate the whole user journey: navigation, forms, error messages, cookie banner, checkout, emails and PDFs.
• Use professional translation or careful review, not machine translation alone. Raw machine output often gets terms, tone and legal wording wrong, and poor French tells Quebec customers you did not take them seriously.
• Translate URL slugs and metadata so French pages can rank for French searches.
• Build translation into your publishing workflow, so new content goes live in both languages together.

Bill 96 website checklist

• Every commercial page, product page, promotion and catalogue exists in French and is as complete as the English.
• French is available on terms at least as favourable: same prices, same offers, equally easy to reach.
• Terms of service, terms of sale and other contracts of adhesion are available in French and presented first.
• Checkout, account sign-up and order confirmation emails work in French.
• Invoices and receipts are available in French.
• Product descriptions, specifications and warranty information are in French.
• Each language has its own URL, with hreflang tags and a working language switcher.
• Translations are professional or professionally reviewed, not machine-only.
• Your cookie banner and privacy policy are in French too (see our guide to Quebec Law 25).

Our free website check tests whether your site has a French version and whether hreflang is set up correctly. If you need a French version built properly, a website redesign is usually the cleanest way to do it.

This isn't legal advice

This guide summarizes the Charter of the French language and OQLF guidance as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and the out-of-province question in particular depends on your facts. For legal questions, talk to a Quebec lawyer. For the website side, bilingual architecture, hreflang and getting French content live properly, request a quote.