Impacts on Doing Business in Canada: Newly Effective Provisions of Quebec Bill 96

By Scott Weide and Matt Kramer
             
Although English and French are both recognized as official languages of Canada, Quebec continues to enact laws which are directed to maintaining its unique cultural identity through the use of the Charter of the French language (the “Charter”). On June 1, 2025, new provisions of Quebec’s Bill 96 (known as An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec) went into effect (the “Act”). Among other things, the Charter as amended by this Act now requires the use of French in commercial contexts such as advertising (including on signage and websites), products and associated packaging, and even in certain types of contracts¹, and thus widely impacts entities doing business in Canada.
 
Generally, compliance with the Charter appears straight-forward: pursuant to the Act, the general rule is that any text appearing in commercial websites and on a product, its container, its packaging, or any document or object supplied with it (for goods/services sold in the Province of Quebec), must be prominently displayed in French. More practically, however, a number of issues arise. For example, many entities do business throughout Canada and not just in Quebec and thus want to direct English-language materials to Canadian consumers outside of Quebec. One option is for businesses to create one set of advertisements and product packaging for use within Quebec and an entirely different set for use throughout the rest of Canada. Another option is to create unitary advertising and product packaging which is in both English and French. In this regard, the Charter indicates that while text in another language is permitted, that text may not be given greater prominence than the French text.
 
Additional compliance issues arise when considering intellectual property used in advertising and on products associated with product packaging. In some cases, the implementing regulations of the Charter exempt from the general rule any English-language trademarks registered under the Canadian Trademarks Act², thus permitting English-language trademarks to be displayed without translation.³ The use of common law trademarks in the English-language may also be exempt⁴, so long as they are not generic or descriptive terms. Generic or descriptive terms, including as appearing in a recognized trademark, must appear in French, and the French translation must be depicted equal to or greater than the non-French term. Similar issues exist relative to the marking of other IP and associated notices.⁵
 
All businesses should consider reviewing their activities in Quebec in relation to the amended Charter, including their websites, advertising, product packaging, and contracts.⁶ The Charter provides for official notifications of non-compliance (with associated fines for failure to correct – ranging from $700 to $7,000 (CAD) for a natural person, and $3,000 to $30,000 (CAD) for all other cases, where each day is considered a separate offense, and fines are doubled and tripled for subsequent offenses) and the right for individuals to sue for violations.