Law 14 (Bill 96): An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec

The workplace and job offers

• Respect your workers’ right to carry on their activities in French.
• Use French in written communications with your workers and the association representing them.
• Provide offers of employment, individual employment contracts, job application forms, documents about conditions of employment, and training documents produced for the staff in French.
• When you publish offers of employment or promotion requiring knowledge of a language other than French (in French only), specify the reasons for this requirement.
• Before imposing this requirement, the employer must take all reasonable means to avoid it, including:
  • Assessing the actual language needs of the position (take the self-assessment [in French only]);
  • Making sure the staff’s current language skills are insufficient;
  • Limiting the number of positions requiring knowledge of another language.

Francization committee

If your business has 100 or more employees, you must form a francization committee (in French only). This committee must meet at least every 6 months, and must now send its meeting minutes to the Office québécois de la langue française (the OQLF).

Language of service and customer communication

In Quebec, you must serve customers in French. If you also provide a service to an individual or another business in another language, make sure that the service is available in French on terms that are at least as favourable.

• Respect consumers’ right to be informed and served in French. Otherwise, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) will deem a language-of-service complaint admissible and could intervene.

Public signs and posters and the Marked predominance rule

All publicly visible content inside or outside your establishment, including public posters, signs, and stickers, must be in French. You can also use another language, so long as French is markedly predominant, i.e., the text in French must have a much greater visual impact than the text in the other language.

Product labelling

• All inscriptions on products offered in Quebec, and the documents supplied with them, must be in French.
• If the information is also given in another language, it may not be available on more favourable terms than the French.

Commercial documents

• All of your commercial documents (e.g., invoices, catalogues and brochures), regardless of the medium used, already had to be available in French. This includes websites and social media posts, even those produced by third parties.
• Contracts of adhesion between two parties (e.g., electricity supply contracts, insurance policies and telephone service agreements) must always be drawn up and available in French. This obligation also applies to all documents related to these contracts.

Declaration and registration with the Office

• Businesses with 5 to 49 employees (in French only)
  • If you run a small business, you must declare the percentage of your workers who are unable to communicate in French, when registering with Quebec’s Registre des entreprises.
  • The Registre des entreprises will make this information public.
  • New businesses must declare this information in their first filing.
  • If your business is already registered, you must disclose this information when you file your current or annual updating declaration.
• Businesses with 50 or more employees (in French only)
  • Register your business with the Office now and begin a francization process (in French only).

Contracts of adhesion

All contracts of adhesion signed on or after June 1, 2023, must be:

• Drafted exclusively in French;
• Drafted in French and another language in the same document (bilingual contract);
• First offered in French before a contract entirely drafted in another language is used. If the French version is refused, a version in another language can be offered and signed.

Public signs and posters and the Marked predominance rule

Starting June 1, 2025, a trademark registered under the Trademarks Act can be displayed, even partially, on a product in a language other than French language, only if there isn't a French version of the trademark in the registry. Nevertheless, if the trademark contains a generic term or description that isn't in French, these elements must also be displayed in French on the product.

*Available in French only.

*Available in French only.

*Available in French only.

Product labelling

Starting June 1, 2025, if a registered trademark within the meaning of the Trademarks Act appears on one of your products that includes a generic term or a description of the product in a language other than French, that information must also appear in French on the product.

*Available in French only.

Registering with the Office

The obligation to undertake a francization process is now extended to businesses with 25 or more employees:

• For businesses with 25 to 49 employees (in French only);
• Register your business with the Office by June 1, 2025, and begin a francization process.

Consequences of non-compliance

The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) can issue you a formal notice to comply with the Charter. If you fail to do so, it can order you to comply.

If you violate an order from the OQLF, you may be subject to criminal penalties. Any recurrence results in a heavier fine.

In the case of a legal entity (company), the adoption of Law 14 results in more significant sanctions:

• 1^st: $3,000 to $30,000 / per day
• 2^nd: $6,000 to $60,000 / per day
• 3^rd: $9,000 to $90,000 / per day

In the case of a natural person, the adoption of Law 14 results in new sanctions:

• 1^st: $1,400 to $14,000 / per day
• 2^nd: $2,800 to $28,000 / per day
• 3^rd: $4,200 to $42,000 / per day

1. How do I calculate my number of employees? Do I include part-time employees?

Here’s how to determine your number of employees for the purposes of Law 14 (Bill 96):

1. Calculation period

The calculation period generally spans 6 consecutive months. Choose a reference period of 6 months over which to make the calculation.

2. Employees to include

Include all employees who work for the business, no matter where they work (including remote, temporary, and part-time workers).

3. Employees to exclude

Do not include:

• Employees outside Quebec;
• Unpaid interns;
• Employees who don’t usually work in Quebec, but are here on temporary assignment.

4. Calculation method

Count the number of employees on the last business day of each month in the 6-month period. Add these numbers and divide the total by 6 to obtain the average number of employees.

Starting June 1, 2025, the obligation to undertake a francization process will extend to businesses with 25 or more employees.

2. What do I do if my trademark is displayed solely in another language?

Until June 1, 2025, a trademark can be displayed solely in a language other than French, but all signage visible from outside premises (including shopping centres or commercial complexes) must include a sufficient amount of French.

This can include French elements describing products and services (e.g., “magasin de meubles” to describe a furniture store), slogans (e.g., “les meilleurs prix en ville!” to boast the best prices in the city), or any other relevant information. These elements must be large enough to be visible 1 metre away from the business. If the trademark is illuminated, they must be illuminated as well.

The following requirements will be enforced starting June 1, 2025. If a trademark in a language other than French is visible from outside premises, descriptive elements in French must be markedly predominant:

• At least twice as much space must be dedicated to French text;
• French characters must be legible (though the French text doesn’t have to be twice as large as the trademark);
• The visual impact of the French text may not be diminished by the display’s other features.

The law reinforces French as the dominant language in Quebec, even for trademarks. If your trademark is in English and is visible from outside your business, you must add a French description or French version of the trademark.

These requirements do not apply to trademarks consisting of invented terms that have no meaning in English or any other language.

3. Does the law apply to e-commerce businesses with no establishment in Quebec?

All clients, consumers or otherwise, must be served and informed in French.

• The obligation to translate commercial content on a website, marketing content, commercial documents, and contracts of adhesion applies to businesses with an establishment in Quebec that are targeting the Quebec market. If the business does not have an establishment in Quebec, the OQLF opts for an incentive-based approach.

Consequences for non-compliance:

• If you fail to meet this obligation, customers or other individuals may file a complaint or report with the OQLF.
• This could lead to penal or civil sanctions or an injunction.

4. Does the law apply to all products and promotional materials sold in Quebec?

Law 14 (Bill 96) applies to all products sold in Quebec, whether they’re sold in stores or on e-commerce platforms. Even products warehoused elsewhere in Canada but sold online in Quebec must comply with French language requirements. French text on packaging, labels, and promotional materials must be at least as visible as text in any other language. In this context, trademarks do not need to be translated. However, as of June 1, 2025, descriptive terms in a language other than French that are part of the trademark must be translated.

5. Our temporary foreign workers don’t speak French. Do we still need to write all our communications in French?

As the Charter of the French language only applies to written communications, verbal communication can take place in any language.

An employer may produce written communications exclusively in a language other than French if the employee has requested it in writing.

We recommend adding a clause in the contracts of new employees stipulating that they agree to receive communications in a language other than French. Existing employees can simply be asked in writing if they agree. While it’s better to have a paper trail, verbal consent is sufficient.

Written communications can also be produced in French and another language, as a bilingual document usually meets the law’s requirement to communicate “in French.”

• As an employer, you may communicate in writing with a worker exclusively in a language other than French if the worker has requested it.
• If you operate an eligible business, you may use the Demande d’entente particulière form (in French only) to apply for a special exemption for your head office or research centre in Quebec, or for both, so that a language other than French can be used as the operating language.

The Office has provided clarification on certain details:

• All English-speaking citizens will continue to have the same access to health services in their language.
• English-speaking communities will continue to enjoy access to high-quality English-language schools, colleges, universities, and hospitals at a level unmatched in French-speaking communities elsewhere in Canada.
• Quebec Anglophones will continue to enjoy the same constitutional guarantees regarding access to justice in their own language.
• The law will continue to be applied in a way that respects the rights of First Nations and Inuit communities, while ensuring the preservation and development of their traditional languages and cultures.
• The Office québécois de la langue française does not and will not conduct searches or seizures.