Bill 96 French social ads Quebec: rules and penalties

What to take away

What Bill 96 changes for social ad copy in Quebec

In 2022, the Charter of the French Language was amended by Bill 96, whose official long title is An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Quebec. The Charter has governed commercial advertising in Quebec since 1977. Bill 96 lowered the francization threshold from 50 to 25 employees and added duties on hiring, contracts and client communications.

Bill 96 received assent on June 1, 2022, and most provisions came into force that day. Some provisions were suspended by the Superior Court of Quebec, so confirm the current status on LégisQuébec before relying on a specific section in a campaign file.

From June 1, 2025, the registration duty extends to enterprises with 25 to 49 employees. Under Charter section 139, an enterprise that employs 25 or more people for six months must register within six months after that period. After registration, it has six months to send the OQLF an analysis of its linguistic situation.

An enterprise employing 25 or more persons must register with the OQLF through the Portail OQLF for francization. The OQLF's business francization page states that enterprises not yet registered must do so through the Portail OQLF. Registration is not the same as a certificate of francization; the OQLF process continues after the account is opened.

For social advertising, the practical change is enforcement attention. The Charter already required French to be markedly predominant in commercial advertising. Bill 96 amended the Charter. The OQLF's complaint process covers advertising, including paid social, so the regulator's own pages and the Charter text on LégisQuébec are the references to check.

The standard is markedly predominant, not simply French being present. A caption with one French word and an English headline does not meet it. Section 58 of the Charter applies this standard to commercial advertising; assess the overall impression of the ad, not a word count. There is no separate social-media section in the Charter.

The Charter applies to advertising directed at Quebec consumers. A national brand that geo-targets Quebec in Meta Ads Manager or LinkedIn Campaign Manager is directing advertising into Quebec, whether or not it has an office there. Print or digital material that carries a brand or product information into Quebec is in scope, according to LILT's Bill 96 summary.

Federal regulation does not automatically remove the need for French advertising in Quebec. Federally regulated sectors such as banks, telecoms and airlines also face federal language rules, including the Use of French in Federally Regulated Businesses Act proposed under Bill C-13. Confirm jurisdiction with counsel before you treat a federal charter as a shield.

The Quebec government's business portal, Entreprises Québec, is the starting point for registration and client-communication duties. It is not a substitute for the Charter text. Use it to find the official forms, then check the OQLF pages for the francization process and the advertising rule.

Penalties under the Charter

Section 205 of the Charter sets fines of $700 to $7,000 for a natural person and $3,000 to $30,000 in other cases, which covers legal persons. A second offence doubles the fine, and further offences triple it. Each day a continuing offence continues counts as a separate offence. Confirm the current text on LégisQuébec before quoting a figure.

Office québécois de la langue française rules for captions and hashtags

The OQLF is the regulator named in the Charter. To report a suspected breach, use the OQLF's online complaint form, Formulaire de plainte, and describe the situation and the business involved; include supporting details if available. The OQLF reviews complaints, investigates as appropriate, issues opinions and can refer matters for prosecution.

The OQLF's site carries its pages on the Charter and commercial advertising, plus the complaint form. Use those pages, not a translated third-party summary, when you need current advertising guidance. The Charter text on LégisQuébec remains the legal reference.

Captions are commercial advertising when they promote a product, service or brand. That means the French version has to be markedly predominant, not tucked into a second line or a comment. The test is the overall impression a Quebec consumer takes from the post, including the caption and the creative.

Treat hashtags as part of the ad copy. A French caption with an English-only branded hashtag may be acceptable if the hashtag is a registered trademark. A hashtag that carries the offer, such as #FreeShipping, is riskier because it does commercial work. Provide a French version of offer and call-to-action hashtags.

Trademarks are a limited carve-out. A registered trademark may be used in its original language, but it cannot be used to smuggle an English slogan past the French requirement. If the trademark is the only French element in an otherwise English ad, the predominance test is likely to fail.

Emoji and graphics count too. If a caption is French but the on-image text is English, the overall impression can fail the predominance test. Review the creative, not just the caption box. Story frames, carousel cards and Reels captions each need their own French review.

Paid versus organic matters less than most teams assume. The Charter governs commercial advertising, and a boosted post is advertising. For a closer look at how paid formats differ in reach and review needs, see our notes on Facebook ads versus boosted posts.

Influencer posts paid by a brand are advertising. The brand and the creator can both be exposed if the French version is missing or subordinate. Language balance also has to hold up in the longer term, which is why this belongs in your content planning a practical guide rather than in a pre-launch scramble.

Landing pages, forms and checkout: where French must be at least equally prominent

The Charter covers more than the ad. A landing page, form or checkout aimed at Quebec consumers is a commercial document or communication. The Charter does not create a separate website section. Section 58 is the advertising hook; the language-of-commerce rules cover the destination page. Apply the same French-first discipline across the whole path.

At minimum, French must be at least equally prominent with any other language on the page. For advertising, the markedly predominant standard is the safer target. A page that is technically bilingual but defaults to English rarely meets either test.

Forms are a frequent complaint source. Field labels, error messages, consent checkboxes and button text all need French versions, not just the headline and body copy. A form that starts in French and drops into English at the payment step is not equally prominent.

Checkout is the highest-risk page. Cart, shipping, payment and confirmation steps should run in French by default for Quebec visitors, with an English toggle available. A language toggle helps but does not cure a French-default failure. If the page loads in English and the toggle is buried in the footer, the French version is not equally prominent.

Bilingual landing pages in Quebec usually work best as two URLs with a shared backend, or one page with French as the default state. Either way, the French page needs its own metadata, not machine-translated leftovers.

Consumer protection rules sit alongside the language rules. Quebec's Consumer Protection Act governs misleading representations and contract terms, and the Office de la protection du consommateur (OPC) administers it. A consumer can bring a consumer-protection complaint to the OPC; that is separate from a language complaint to the OQLF.

National brands running Quebec campaigns: practical translation and review steps

A repeatable process beats a scramble before every launch. The steps below fit a national campaign with a Quebec geo-target. They are a suggested workflow, not a legal deadline set by the Charter.

A suggested review timeline

Ten business days before launch, draft the French caption and creative first. Seven days before, have the Quebec reviewer check predominance and the destination page. Two days before, re-check the live placement and capture screenshots. These are suggested intervals for planning, not statutory deadlines.

Keep the reviewer's notes with the screenshots. If a complaint arrives, the file shows what ran, when it ran and who approved it. That is more useful than a general statement that the team always translates.

Worked example: a national retailer's spring campaign

Take a Canadian retailer running a Meta campaign into Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. The English caption leads with a discount and the French line sits underneath in smaller type. The landing page defaults to English with a footer toggle. Under the Charter, both choices fail.

The French caption is not markedly predominant, and the landing page does not present French equally prominently. The fix is straightforward. The Quebec placement gets its own French-first caption with the offer and the call to action in French, and the landing page loads in French for Quebec visitors with an English toggle at the top.

The retailer also renames the campaign's Quebec UTM tags to match the French page, so reporting stays clean and the French page can be measured separately. If you track campaign performance by province, our guide to social media metrics for Canadian ecommerce brands shows how to split that reporting.

Promotions and giveaways

Contest rules, eligibility text and winner announcements are commercial communications. They need French versions too. If you plan a promotion, review how to run a social media giveaway legally before you publish the rules. Also check the privacy side against our guide to Canadian privacy law and social media contests.

Verifying advertisers and sponsors through the Quebec enterprise register

The Quebec enterprise register, the Registraire des entreprises, is the public record of businesses operating in Quebec. It lists legal names, registration numbers and the addresses on file. Use it before you name a sponsor or co-brand in a Quebec campaign.

Advertisers and agencies should verify any business they name in a Quebec campaign. A sponsor whose legal name differs from its trading name can create a mismatch between the ad and the register entry. That mismatch is avoidable before launch.

Verification matters for co-branded campaigns. If you name a Quebec sponsor in a caption, the legal name on the register is the one to check against your contract and your disclosure. Keep a dated extract with the campaign file.

You can find an enterprise in the register by name or registration number before a campaign goes live. Registration is not the same as compliance. A business can be registered and still run non-compliant advertising. The register tells you who you are dealing with, not whether their copy passes the Charter.

For agencies buying media on behalf of a Quebec client, keep the register extract with the campaign file. It is cheap evidence if a dispute arises over who the advertiser actually was. It also speeds up a complaint response.

Where Bill 96 meets Law 25, PIPEDA and CASL obligations

PIPEDA, the federal private-sector privacy law, governs how you collect, use and disclose personal information in the course of commercial activity. Quebec also has its own provincial privacy law, Law 25, which applies to private-sector enterprises carrying on business in Quebec. The Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (CAI) is the provincial privacy regulator.

Bill 96 and PIPEDA are separate regimes, but they touch the same assets. A lead form collects personal information and presents commercial advertising at the same time. The consent checkbox is where they meet. PIPEDA requires meaningful consent, and the Charter requires the consent text to be available in French with at least equal prominence.

Privacy policies are commercial documents. A Quebec-facing privacy policy should have a French version, and the French version should be the default for Quebec visitors. Law 25 adds its own consent and transparency duties, so the privacy notice needs a Quebec review as well as a translation.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada publishes its privacy topics in French, which is useful when a policy has to be cited in both languages. The same office sets out the federal private-sector law on its PIPEDA page.

CASL, Canada's anti-spam law, governs commercial electronic messages. Consent requests and unsubscribe mechanisms must be clear, and for Quebec recipients the French version needs to meet the same standard. The CRTC enforces CASL and publishes guidance on consent and unsubscribe requirements.

One practical rule: build the French consent text at the same time as the English, not after. Retrofitting consent language into a live automation is where teams lose the audit trail. Check the French consent, privacy and unsubscribe text separately whenever a campaign or its destination changes.

Bill 96 French social ads checklist for Quebec campaigns

Use this checklist before every Quebec placement goes live, then keep the completed copy with the campaign file:

Keeping the file current

Compliance is a maintenance task, not a launch task. Re-run the checklist at every creative refresh, every landing page change and every new sponsor. Do not treat a language review as a substitute for privacy or spam review.

Check the French consent, privacy and unsubscribe text separately whenever a campaign or its destination changes. If a fine is threatened, check section 205 on LégisQuébec and get Quebec counsel. The checklist is a control, not a legal opinion.

Common questions