Selling to Quebec: French-language rules for your Shopify store

What the Charter says, in its own words

Summaries of Bill 96 vary widely, so start with the Charter itself. These provisions, as published by LegisQuébec and current to June 10, 2026, are the ones an online store meets most often.

• Section 50.2: an enterprise that offers goods or services to consumers must respect their right to be informed and served in French.
• Section 51: every inscription on a product, its container or its wrapping, or on a document or object supplied with it, including directions for use and warranty certificates, must be drafted in French. Translations may accompany it, but no other language may be given greater prominence.
• Section 51.1: a registered trademark may appear only in another language where no French version is registered, but a generic term or a description of the product included in the trademark must appear in French on the product or on a medium permanently attached to it.
• 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, and a version in another language can’t be offered on more favourable terms.
• Section 55: contracts pre-determined by one party, and their related documents, must be drawn up in French; the parties may be bound by another language only after the French version has been provided and at the adhering party’s express wish.

Websites: what the OQLF says, and what it doesn’t

The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) is explicit in its guidance for businesses: commercial documentation must be at least in French regardless of the medium, and that includes websites and social media pages. It adds that a business must make sure the documentation it distributes is in French even when a third party produced it.

That guidance is written for businesses carrying on activities in Quebec, and the product rules attach to products offered in Quebec. What the official texts do not spell out is how the website rule applies to a business with no establishment in Quebec that ships to customers there. Some secondary sources state a view either way; treat those as opinions and get advice for your own situation.

The commercial answer is simpler than the legal one. Customers in Quebec read French, the labelling and contract rules apply to what you sell them regardless, and a store that informs and serves them properly in French competes better. If Quebec is a market you want, build for it deliberately.

The trademark rule and its 2027 deadline

Since June 1, 2025, generic or descriptive words that form part of a trademark on a product must also appear in French on the product or on a medium permanently attached to it. For a hypothetical product sold under the registered English trademark “Everyday Gel Pen”, the descriptive words “gel pen” need French on the product, not only in the instructions.

The OQLF allows a transition: until June 1, 2027, a product manufactured before June 1, 2025 may still be sold if no French version of the trademark had been filed by June 26, 2024. Plan stock rotation and packaging reprints so that nothing depends on that allowance after it ends.

For a Shopify store, the practical step is an inventory of SKUs and their packaging: which are compliant, which need stickers or new print runs, and which suppliers need to be asked. Record the outcome in a product field so merchandising and wholesale teams can see it.

Build French into the store, not onto it

Shopify supports multiple languages in one store through Markets and its translation tools, but the quality of a French storefront depends on how completely it is done. Product titles, descriptions, variant names, collections, navigation, pages, blog posts, theme text, metafields, notifications and policies all need French versions.

Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app can automatically translate at most two languages, and policies can only be translated manually. Some content, such as text inside images, tags and content from some third-party apps, can’t be translated through the app at all, so check it separately. Machine translation is a starting point: have a fluent editor review product claims, measurements, warranty wording and anything customers rely on to decide.

Design for French from the first wireframe. French copy often runs longer than English, which affects buttons, navigation and product cards. When we rebuilt Little Magpie’s store, English, French and Simplified Chinese were designed into the theme from the start, so each language keeps the same structure rather than squeezing into an English layout.

Make the French store findable

Give French pages their own URLs, translated handles, page titles and meta descriptions. Shopify adds hreflang tags automatically so search engines can match each language version to the right searchers; since July 10, 2026 you can turn that off under Online Store › Preferences, but leave it on unless you manage hreflang tags yourself and want to avoid duplicates.

Let customers choose their language rather than forcing a redirect based on location. A shopper in Ottawa may prefer French and one in Montreal may prefer English; a visible language selector and a remembered choice serve both.

Serve in French after the sale

Section 50.2 is about being informed and served, which continues after checkout. Order confirmations, shipping updates, customer account pages, returns instructions and support replies all belong to the French experience.

Check the notification templates in each language, the language your help desk uses for French customers and whether your chat or review app has French content. A French storefront followed by English-only emails is where many stores break the experience.

Terms of sale are contracts of adhesion

Online terms of sale, subscription terms and warranties are typically pre-determined by one party, which brings them under section 55. Publish French versions and make sure a customer shopping in French sees the French terms linked at checkout.

Because Translate & Adapt doesn’t translate policies automatically, they are easy to leave in English. Put policy translation on the launch checklist and on the checklist for every policy change.

Penalties and priorities

The OQLF can order a business to comply, and under section 205 contravening such an order is an offence carrying a fine of $700 to $7,000 for a natural person and $3,000 to $30,000 in other cases.

Prioritise the obligations that are clearest: product inscriptions and packaging, including the trademark rule, then terms and policies, then the full storefront and after-sale communication. This article is general information, not legal advice; for your own obligations, speak to a lawyer familiar with the Charter.

A Quebec readiness checklist

• Inventory SKUs and packaging for French inscriptions and the trademark rule, with a plan for June 1, 2027.
• Add French as a language for your Canadian market and translate every storefront surface, not only products.
• Have a fluent editor review machine-translated product claims, measurements and warranty wording.
• Translate policies manually and link the French versions at checkout.
• Check French notifications, customer account pages and returns instructions.
• Confirm hreflang, translated URLs and French meta titles are in place.
• Decide how support will serve customers in French, and write it down.