Quebec Bill 96 and your website: selling in French

What the Charter says that touches a website

Several sections of the Charter, as amended, concern what a business publishes and sends online.

• Right to be served in French (section 50.2): a business that offers goods or services to consumers must respect their right to be informed and served in French. When the public is not made up of consumers, the business must inform and serve it in French.

• Commercial documents (section 52): regardless of the medium used, catalogues, brochures, folders, commercial directories, order forms and similar documents available to the public must be drawn up in French. A version in another language may exist only if the French version is available on terms at least as favourable. A website that presents and sells products is squarely in this category.

• Product information (section 51): inscriptions on a product, its packaging and the documents supplied with it, including directions for use and warranty certificates, must be in French; no other language may be given greater prominence.

• Contracts of adhesion (section 55): standard contracts and the related documents must be drawn up in French. Since June 1, 2023, a customer may be bound by a version in another language only after receiving the French version and expressly choosing the other one. Your online terms and conditions are the typical example.

• Invoices and receipts (section 57): they must be drawn up in French, and a version in another language cannot be sent if the French one is not available to the recipient.

• Public signs and commercial advertising (section 58): they must be in French, or in French and another language with French markedly predominant. Since June 1, 2025, a registered trademark in another language on a sign visible from outside premises requires French to be markedly predominant.

These rules are not theoretical. In January 2025, a Montreal furniture business was convicted for a second time of an offence under section 52, according to the OQLF, because its website was available only in a language other than French.

How we build it with you

We start with an inventory of everything the site shows and sends: pages, product data, emails, documents, third-party apps. Each item gets a status: already in French, to be translated, to be replaced because it cannot be translated.

We then set up the site so that both languages are equal by construction: one structure, two complete versions, a language switch on every page, and French as a first-class version rather than an afterthought. For an online shop, we configure the translation of the theme, notifications and checkout, and we check the apps that insert their own text.

If you do not have French content, we can write or adapt it through our content writing service, with French adapted to Quebec usage rather than a literal translation. The translation of your content, if you do not supply it, is quoted separately. Your legal texts remain yours: we integrate the French versions supplied by you or your adviser.

This work fits into a website creation, an online shop creation or a redesign, or it can be the subject of a website audit first. See our pricing page for starting prices.