Run a restaurant in Quebec and there's a rulebook that sits alongside your food-safety permit and your GST/HST compliance checklist: the Charter of the French Language, updated by Bill 96. It decides what language your sign, your menu, your receipts and your website have to be in. Get it wrong and a single customer complaint to the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) can turn into a fine that repeats for every day the problem stays on your wall or your website.
The good news: the rules that actually touch a small restaurant are finite, and most of them you can check in an afternoon. This is a plain-English, tick-box checklist for the Quebec operator — what must be in French, what "French-predominant" really means, the one threshold that decides whether you have extra paperwork, and what happens if the OQLF comes knocking. It's written in English to explain the obligations; the obligations themselves are about serving your customers in French.
Key takeaways
- New signage, product and contract obligations came into force on 1 June 2025 (Éducaloi, 2025).
- On an outdoor sign that shows a non-French trademark or business name, the French text must be "markedly predominant" — it has to take up at least twice the space of the other language (Éducaloi, 2025).
- Receipts, order forms, standard-form (adhesion) contracts, your website and your social media all have to be available in French if you operate in Quebec (Éducaloi, 2025).
- At 5 or more employees, you must be able to serve customers in French (Éducaloi, 2025).
- Fines run C$3,000–C$30,000 for a business (C$700–C$7,000 for an individual) and apply for each day the offence continues, doubling then tripling for repeats (Stikeman Elliott, 2025).
- More than 10,000 complaints were filed with the OQLF in 2024–2025, nearly half about the right to be served in French (Éducaloi, 2025).
What does Bill 96 require of a Quebec restaurant?
In short: everything a customer reads, is handed, or is served must be available in French — your signage, menu, receipts, contracts, website and staff service — and where another language appears in public, French has to be at least as prominent. Bill 96 didn't invent this; it strengthened the existing Charter of the French Language and added teeth: bigger fines, day-by-day enforcement, and new signage rules.
Since 1 June 2025, three fresh obligations have been in force — tighter rules on signage of trademarks and business names, on trademarks printed on products, and on standard-form (adhesion) contracts (Québec.ca, 2025). For most independent restaurants the practical takeaway is simple: French first, French clearly, French everywhere the customer meets your business. The checklist below walks each surface in the order a customer hits it.
The Quebec restaurant Bill 96 compliance checklist
Work through these six areas. Each is a place the OQLF — or a customer filing a complaint — will look.
1. Your storefront and exterior signage
- [ ] Your public signage is in French. Public signage and commercial advertising must be in French; where another language is used, French must be "markedly predominant" (OQLF, 2025).
- [ ] If your outdoor sign carries a non-French trademark or business name, the French around it is at least twice the size. Since 1 June 2025, the French slogan or description has to "take up at least twice the space of the other language" and be at least as legible and visible (Éducaloi, 2025). A brand name like "Joe's Grill" on the facade needs a French generic term or description — restaurant, cuisine, grillades — carrying twice the visual weight.
- [ ] Window decals, opening hours and A-frame boards are in French (a bilingual board is fine as long as the French is present and predominant).
2. Your menu, boards and printed materials
- [ ] Your menu is available in French. There is no separate "menu clause" naming menus in the statute, but a menu is a commercial publication you use to inform and serve customers, and customers "have the right to be served and informed in French" (OQLF, 2025). Treat a French menu as mandatory.
- [ ] A bilingual menu is allowed — as long as the French version is complete and of comparable quality. You don't have to drop English; you have to make sure French is genuinely there, not an afterthought.
- [ ] Daily-special chalkboards, table tents and printed inserts follow the same rule.
3. Receipts, invoices and contracts
- [ ] Your receipts and invoices are in French. Customers have the right "to receive an invoice in French following a purchase," and catalogues, brochures, order forms, receipts and warranties "must be available in French" (Éducaloi, 2025). Check what your POS actually prints.
- [ ] Standard-form (adhesion) contracts are in French. These are the pre-printed, take-it-or-leave-it agreements — catering contracts, gift-card terms, event-booking forms. Since 1 June 2025 they have to be provided in French (Éducaloi, 2025).
- [ ] Order forms and online-ordering confirmations are in French too (Éducaloi, 2025).
4. Your website, online ordering and social media
- [ ] You have a French version of your website. If your business has an address in Quebec and offers products or services to Quebecers, "you must have a French version of your website" (Éducaloi, 2025).
- [ ] Your online-ordering page, booking widget and any order forms are in French.
- [ ] Your social-media pages are available in French — they count as commercial documents (Éducaloi, 2025).
This is the surface most owners forget, because the website was often built once — by a supplier or "the nephew" — and never touched again. If yours is English-only, or the online-ordering menu a delivery app scraped is English-only, that is a live obligation, not a nice-to-have. A bilingual website and ordering page you can actually edit yourself — rather than one you have to email someone to change — is the cheapest way to stay onside as menus and prices move. (Full disclosure: DineHere builds exactly that kind of self-serve bilingual restaurant site; it's one option among many, and the obligation stands whoever hosts you.)
5. Serving customers in French
- [ ] You can serve customers in French. If you have at least 5 employees, "you must be able to serve customers in French," meaning enough people on each shift have adequate French to communicate with customers (Éducaloi, 2025). This is the single most-complained-about obligation — nearly half of the 10,000-plus OQLF complaints in 2024–2025 were about the right to be served in French (Éducaloi, 2025).
- [ ] Front-of-house greetings and phone service default to French.
6. Do you have to register for francization?
- [ ] Count your employees. Since 1 June 2025, businesses with 25 to 49 employees must register with the OQLF and follow the francization process; before then the threshold was 50 (Éducaloi, 2025).
- [ ] If you're under 25 employees, you skip the francization paperwork — but not the rest. A one- to five-person restaurant does not have to register or run a francization program. Every consumer-facing rule above — signage, menu, receipts, website, service — still applies regardless of your size. That's the nuance owners get wrong: small restaurants escape the registration file, not the French on the sign.
What happens if you get a complaint?
Anyone can file a complaint online through the OQLF, which then contacts you and usually sets a deadline to fix the problem before penalties escalate (Éducaloi, 2025). Most first contacts are a warning with a compliance date, not an instant fine — the expensive outcome comes from ignoring it.
The fines themselves are structured to punish delay, because each day the offence continues counts separately:
| Situation | Fine (per day the offence continues) |
|---|---|
| First offence — individual | C$700 – C$7,000 |
| First offence — business / corporation | C$3,000 – C$30,000 |
| Repeat offence | Doubled |
| Further offences | Tripled |
| Director or officer | Doubled again (and presumed liable) |
Those figures come straight from the Charter: fines are "between $700 and $7,000 for individuals and $3,000 and $30,000 in other cases," they "apply for each day that the offence continues," they double then triple for repeats, and they are doubled again for directors and officers — who are "presumed to have committed the offence," subject to a due-diligence defence (Stikeman Elliott, 2025). The practical lesson: a C$3,000 sign problem is cheap to fix and ruinously expensive to leave, because it re-charges every day it's up.
A realistic first pass in about an hour
You don't need a lawyer to start. Do a walkthrough as if you were a French-speaking customer:
- Stand on the sidewalk. Is your sign French, or French-predominant if it carries an English brand name? Photograph it.
- Sit at a table. Pick up the menu, the specials board, the table tent. French present and complete?
- Buy something. Does the POS print a French receipt? Does the card terminal prompt in French?
- Open your website on your phone. Is there a French version — including the online-ordering page and any booking form?
- Check your socials. Is the business page available in French?
- Count heads. 25+ employees means you also register for francization.
Fix the cheap, visible things first — the sign, the menu, the receipt template, the website language toggle. They're the ones a passer-by can photograph and complain about, and the ones that stack daily fines. This sits alongside your other Quebec compliance jobs; if you're squaring away paperwork anyway, it pairs naturally with understanding what HST is and the rate you charge. For Quebec operators, tip handling has its own provincial wrinkles too — see controlled vs direct tips.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a French menu in Quebec?
Yes, in practice. No statute names "menus" specifically, but a menu is a commercial publication used to inform and serve customers, and customers have the right to be informed and served in French, so a complete French menu is effectively mandatory (OQLF, 2025).
Can my menu be bilingual (French and English)?
Yes. A bilingual menu is allowed as long as the French version is present, complete and of comparable quality. You are not required to remove English — only to make sure French is genuinely there.
Does my restaurant website really have to be in French?
Yes, if your business has an address in Quebec and offers products or services to Quebecers, you must have a French version of your website (Éducaloi, 2025). That includes your online-ordering page and social-media pages.
My sign uses my English brand name — is that allowed?
Yes, but since 1 June 2025 the French text around a non-French trademark or business name on an outdoor sign must be "markedly predominant," taking up at least twice the space of the other language and being at least as legible (Éducaloi, 2025).
How much are the fines for a business?
For a business, C$3,000 to C$30,000, and the fine applies for each day the offence continues, doubling for a repeat and tripling for further offences (Stikeman Elliott, 2025).
Can I personally be fined as the owner?
Yes. Fines are doubled for directors and officers, who are presumed to have committed the offence unless they can show due diligence (Stikeman Elliott, 2025).
I only have three staff — do I have to register for francization?
No. Registration and the francization process apply from 25 employees; a one- to five-person restaurant is well below that (Éducaloi, 2025). But all the signage, menu, receipt, website and service rules still apply to you.
At what number of employees must I serve customers in French?
At 5 or more employees you must be able to serve customers in French, meaning enough staff on shift have adequate French (Éducaloi, 2025).
Do my receipts and contracts have to be in French?
Yes. Invoices, receipts, order forms, warranties and standard-form (adhesion) contracts must be available in French (Éducaloi, 2025).
What happens when someone complains to the OQLF?
Complaints are filed online; the OQLF contacts the business and typically sets a deadline to comply before penalties escalate, and repeated violations can eventually put permits or authorizations at risk (Éducaloi, 2025).
This article is general information for Quebec restaurant owners, not legal advice. For your specific situation, confirm requirements with the OQLF or a Quebec lawyer.
