Quebec French-language and privacy requirements for a business website

01Who this applies to

The Charter's French-language rules apply to businesses operating in Quebec. How far they reach a business in Ontario or elsewhere that serves Quebec customers remotely, with no establishment in Quebec, is not settled; if you sell to, market to or serve customers in Quebec, ask a Quebec lawyer to confirm your position. Law 25 covers private-sector organizations that collect personal information in Quebec, and a website with a contact form or analytics almost always collects personal information. Whether it binds a business outside Quebec that serves Quebec customers remotely is also not settled, but the CAI reads it broadly, so building to it is the safer course.

The two laws have different regulators. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) administers the Charter; the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (CAI) administers Law 25. Both publish guidance for businesses, and both are the place to confirm details for your situation.

02The French-language requirement in practice

The Charter's requirement is that the site be available in French. In practice that touches more of the site than most owners expect.

• A French version of the site's commercial content: pages, product and service descriptions, forms, error messages, confirmation emails and downloadable documents aimed at customers.
• French that is not treated as secondary: a machine-translated afterthought hidden behind a flag icon is the wrong approach, and the OQLF's guidance explains how the French version should be offered.
• Language handling that respects the visitor: detect or ask, remember the choice, and keep the French version complete as content changes.
• Social media posts and email marketing aimed at Quebec customers are publications too.
• Trademarks and certain names have specific rules; check the OQLF's guidance before assuming an English brand name exempts anything else.

03Law 25 basics for a website

Law 25 modernized Quebec's private-sector privacy rules in three phases between September 2022 and September 2024, so all of its obligations are now in force. For a website, the CAI's guidance points to the following.

• Designate a person in charge of the protection of personal information (a privacy officer) and publish their title and contact details on the website.
• Publish a privacy policy in plain language, in French, that says what you collect, why, how it is used and shared, and how people can exercise their rights.
• Collect only what a form actually needs, and explain why you need it at the point of collection.
• Handle consent for tracking and marketing deliberately; Law 25 includes further obligations that depend on what your site collects and where it is stored, so check the CAI's guidance for your case.
• Have a plan for a privacy incident: who does what, and how people are notified.

04A practical checklist

The table splits the work between you and your web provider. Translation and policy decisions are yours; the mechanics are the builder's.

05How to build a bilingual site well

Next.js handles bilingual sites cleanly: each page exists at an English and a French address, the site declares the language of each page and the relationship between the two versions, and the visitor's choice is remembered. Redenn builds the French pages as parallel pages, which means every page you add later is added twice, and the site is planned that way from the start.

On cost, each French page is priced as an extra standard page, CA$49, plus content insertion at CA$29 per page to place the French text that you or your translator supply. Prices are in Canadian dollars and exclude taxes. Any tax that applies is shown separately on your invoice. Translation itself is not something Redenn prices; use a professional translator, because the French version is a legal publication, not a courtesy.

06Common mistakes

These are the errors that turn good intentions into a complaint.

• Machine-translating the site once and never updating the French version.
• A French homepage with English service pages behind it.
• A privacy policy copied from another site, with no privacy officer named.
• Forgetting emails, PDFs and booking confirmations.
• Treating an English trademark as a reason to skip French everywhere else.

07Not legal advice, and where to check

This guide summarizes publicly available requirements as of 2026-09-24 and is general information, not legal advice. Obligations depend on your business, what you collect and whom you serve. For the French-language rules, consult the OQLF; for Law 25, consult the CAI; for both, a Quebec lawyer can confirm how they apply to you.