Bill 96 Explained: The French-Language Rules Businesses Must Follow in Quebec

Bill 96 makes French the required language of doing business in Quebec, and it reaches further than most owners expect. If you sell to customers in Quebec, employ people there, label a product, or hang a storefront sign, the law sets out what has to be in French and how prominent the French has to be. It applies whether your business sits in Montreal or ships in from Toronto or Seattle.

The obligations fall into four areas:

• the language your staff work in
• how you handle customers and contracts
• what appears on your product labels and packaging
• what goes on your public signs

Several of the strictest rules took effect on June 1, 2025, including a lower threshold for the francization process and tighter rules on trademarks and signage. The Office québécois de la langue française, the OQLF, enforces all of it, mostly by acting on complaints, and the fines reach $30,000 a day for a business.

Bill 96 amends Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, the 1977 law often called Bill 101. This guide walks through each obligation in plain terms: what it means, who it applies to, and what you have to translate or fix. It is general information rather than legal advice, so check the official sources linked throughout against your own situation.

What is Bill 96?

Where it came from

Bill 96 is a 2022 Quebec law, officially the Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, sometimes called Law 14. It is the first major overhaul of the Charter of the French Language since 1977. The province brought it in amid concern that English, especially online, was gaining ground in daily commercial life.

What it changed

Most of the business rules build on the Charter that was already in place. Bill 96 widened the set of companies they cover and raised the penalties for ignoring them. It also pulled in activity that used to sit outside the rules, like e-commerce sales into Quebec from elsewhere.

Quebec shielded much of the law from constitutional challenge with the notwithstanding clause. For a business, that means this is settled ground to plan around, not a rule likely to be struck down.

Does Bill 96 apply to your business?

Almost certainly, if you do business in Quebec at all. The Charter covers any business that offers products or services in Quebec, whatever its size, and it reaches freelancers and nonprofits too. A few duties scale with headcount.

The size thresholds that matter

Two employee counts change what you owe. One catches you at five, the other at twenty-five, and the second one changed in 2025.

Business size	What applies
Any size, selling in Quebec	French on products, signs, websites, and public communications
5 or more employees	Customers must be able to be served in French
25 or more employees	Register with the OQLF and run a francization process (lowered from 50 on June 1, 2025)

 

The five-employee line is about service: with five or more people, enough staff on shift have to be able to deal with customers in French. The twenty-five line is about the formal francization process, covered below.

If your business is outside Quebec

The rules still find you if you sell into Quebec. A company that advertises or sells to Quebec consumers online has to offer French, even when it ships from another province or another country. Warehousing your stock in Ontario does not put your Quebec-facing labels or website outside the Charter.

French as the language of work

Inside the workplace, Bill 96 gives employees the right to work in French and puts your core employment paperwork in French by default.

What you have to put in French

The everyday documents your staff receive have to be available in French. Two exceptions help: you can produce a document in another language when an employee asks for that in writing, and you can require another language for a role when you can justify the need.

Employment paperwork to translate

Start with the documents every employee touches:

• job postings and offers of employment
• individual employment contracts
• documents on working conditions
• internal policies and staff handbooks
• training material produced for your team
• forms and notices sent to staff or their union

If a posting requires a language other than French, the listing has to spell out why that language is needed.

Francization for businesses with 25 or more employees

This is the change that caught the most companies in 2025. Since June 1, 2025, any business with 25 or more employees in Quebec for six months has to register with the OQLF and work through a francization process. The old threshold was 50, so a band of mid-size employers crossed into the rules this year.

What the francization process involves

Registration is the start, not the finish. The process runs in stages:

• register with the OQLF once you have held 25 or more employees for six months
• analyze where French stands across your operations, within the window the OQLF sets after registration
• put any gaps right, from internal software to signage and documents
• report on progress and work toward a francization certificate

The cost of skipping it

There is a direct hit for staying unregistered. A business that is supposed to be registered and isn’t can be shut out of contracts and subsidies from the Quebec government. For any company that sells to the public sector, that alone is reason to keep current.

French for your customers and contracts

Customers in Quebec have the right to be served in French, and that shapes most of what you put in front of them.

Serving customers in French

If you have five or more employees, enough of your staff on shift have to be able to serve customers in French. This is about coverage on the floor and on the phones, not about every single worker holding a language test.

Your website and public materials

Public-facing materials aimed at Quebec customers have to be available in French. An English-only site that sells into Quebec is something the OQLF can act on.

A French version has to be a real equivalent. If you run French alongside another language, the French has to be as easy to reach and of comparable quality. A French page hidden behind a small link while the English sits front and center does not meet the test.

What to translate on your customer-facing side

Work through the places a Quebec customer meets your brand:

• your website, including product pages and checkout
• catalogues, brochures, and order forms
• social media accounts that serve Quebec customers
• email campaigns and promotions aimed at Quebec
• receipts, invoices, and customer notices

Contracts of adhesion

Standard-form contracts, the take-it-or-leave-it kind like an insurance policy or a utility agreement, carry their own rule. A contract of adhesion has to be presented to the customer in French first. The customer can choose another language after seeing the French version, so the French has to exist before the choice is offered.

French on product labels and packaging

Anything written on a product sold in Quebec has to appear in French, including the packaging and the documents that ship with it, like instructions and the warranty. You can add other languages, as long as nothing in another language is more prominent than the French.

The basic labeling rule

Treat the whole package as in scope: the container, the wrapping, the insert, and any object supplied with the product. Safety information always has to be in French. Permanently engraved or embossed lettering on goods made outside Quebec is the main thing that gets a pass.

Trademarks and the generic-term trap

This is where brand owners trip. A recognized non-French trademark can still appear on a product in English, as long as no French version of it is registered. Since June 1, 2025, though, if that trademark contains a word that describes the product or what it does, that word has to appear in French somewhere on the product or its packaging.

A worked example

The OQLF’s own example makes it concrete. Picture a soap sold under the brand BESTSOAP:

• the brand name BESTSOAP can stay in English
• the words on the bottle that say “pear and lavender” describe the scent, so they need French
• a claim like “kills 99% of bacteria” describes what the product does, so it needs French too

The name stays. The description gets translated. That single distinction settles most labeling questions.

E-commerce and the grace period

Two points round out the product rules:

• E-commerce counts. Products sold online to Quebec customers have to meet the same standard, even when they are warehoused in another province.
• There is a sell-off window. Products manufactured before June 1, 2025 that don’t comply can be sold until June 1, 2027, under set conditions.

What to fix on your packaging

A practical pass through a product line usually means:

• translating every descriptive and generic term on the label into French
• adding French to inserts, manuals, and warranty cards
• checking that no English text outsizes or outshines the French
• confirming safety and usage information appears in French
• flagging older stock that the 2027 window still covers

French on signs and storefronts

Public signs and storefront signage have to be in French. You can include another language, as long as French is markedly predominant, the phrase the Charter uses.

The markedly-predominant rule

Where a non-French trademark or business name appears on an exterior sign, the French has to take up at least twice the space of the other language. The point is visual weight: a Quebec passerby should read French first and most.

A worked example

The government’s example uses a butcher shop. A storefront carrying the English trademark BEST BEEF needs French that clearly dominates the sign, such as the word BOUCHERIE, sized and placed so the French fills roughly twice the space of the English.

How to measure it

The 2025 rules let you measure predominance by the total area the text occupies rather than by font size alone. That gives some design freedom: you can hit the standard through placement and layout, not only by making the French letters literally twice as tall. Dynamic signs that alternate languages have their own allowance, where the French has to show for at least twice as long.

What happens if you don’t comply?

How enforcement works

Enforcement runs through the OQLF, and it is mostly complaint-driven. Anyone who thinks you are breaking the rules can file a complaint. The OQLF can inspect your business and issue a formal notice to fix the problem within a set time. Ignore the notice and it escalates.

The fines

The penalties are not token amounts. They climb with each repeat, and every day a violation continues counts on its own.

Offense	Fine for a business
First offense	$3,000 to $30,000, each day a separate offense
Second offense	Doubled
Third and beyond	Tripled

The OQLF can also go to court for an injunction, and a judge can order non-compliant signs taken down at the offender’s expense.

The business costs beyond the fine

The fine is not the whole exposure:

• a company that should be registered for francization and isn’t can lose Quebec government contracts and subsidies
• repeat offenders can have permits suspended or revoked
• individuals can bring their own legal action over French-language rights

For a business with public-sector clients or a recognizable storefront, the contract and reputation risk often outweighs the fine itself.

Getting the French right, and why France French won’t pass

Here is the part the legal summaries skip. Putting French on the page is half the job. The French has to be Quebec French, and it has to read well enough to clear an OQLF review.

Quebec French and France French read differently

The two are not interchangeable. Vocabulary and everyday expressions differ, and a Quebec reader, or an OQLF reviewer, picks up on it right away. Copy translated for a French audience can land as foreign here, which undercuts the whole point of translating it.

Why machine translation is a risk

The OQLF expects a French version that matches the original in quality. A raw machine translation can be grammatical and still read as something no Quebecer wrote. For anything public-facing, that is a gamble on the exact criterion a reviewer applies.

What needs translating

For most businesses, Bill 96 is a steady stream of translation rather than a single project, because the obligations touch every part of the operation. Here is the work, mapped to the four areas:

Area	What to translate
Workplace	Offers, contracts, policies, training material, staff notices
Customers and contracts	Website, catalogues, social media, invoices, contracts of adhesion
Products	Labels, packaging, inserts, manuals, warranty, descriptive terms in trademarks
Signage	Storefront and interior signs, with French markedly predominant

It also has to stay current. New products, new pages, and new campaigns each bring fresh copy that has to ship in Quebec French from the start.

If you are working through this, our translation service handles Quebec French across packaging, contracts, websites, and signage, and our language consulting can guide the francization process and a plan for keeping French current as you grow. For documents that need certification, such as filings tied to a regulator, our guide to certified translation in Canada explains when that applies. And if you are comparing providers, how to choose a language services provider in Canada covers the Canadian French question in depth.

Get your Bill 96 translation right the first time

French-language compliance under Bill 96 is not a one-time fix, and getting it wrong carries a daily fine. We help businesses across Canada put their French into proper Quebec French that holds up to an OQLF review, from product labels to your website. Tell us what you need and we’ll send back a plan and a quote within one business day. Get in touch.

Frequently asked questions about Bill 96

Does Bill 96 apply if my business is outside Quebec?

Yes, if you sell to customers in Quebec. A business that advertises or sells to Quebec consumers, including online from another province or country, has to provide French.

What changed on June 1, 2025?

Three things took effect that day:

• the francization threshold dropped from 50 employees to 25
• French became markedly predominant where a non-French trademark appears on an exterior sign
• descriptive or generic words inside a recognized trademark have to be translated on products

How many employees trigger francization?

Twenty-five. A business with 25 or more employees in Quebec for six months has to register with the OQLF and run a francization process. Until June 1, 2025, the threshold was 50.

Can I use machine translation to comply with Bill 96?

It is a risk. The OQLF expects the French version to match the quality of the original, and machine output often reads as something no Quebec francophone wrote. For public-facing material, a Quebec French translator is the safer route.

Do I have to translate my trademark?

Usually not the mark itself, if it is a recognized non-French trademark with no registered French version. Any generic or descriptive wording inside it does have to appear in French on the product.

What are the penalties?

A business can be fined between $3,000 and $30,000, with each day a separate offense, doubled for a second offense and tripled after that. Permits can be suspended, and individuals can bring their own action over French-language rights.

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Author: Brian Bickford

Brian Bickford is the founder of UN Language Services, a leading provider of language solutions in Canada. With over two decades of experience in the industry, Brian has helped governments, unions, NGOs, and event planners overcome language barriers through expert interpretation, translation, and consulting. As a former freelancer turned entrepreneur, he remains committed to quality, client satisfaction, and empowering interpreters at every stage of their careers.