On January 10, 2024, the Quebec government unveiled the draft Regulation to amend mainly the Regulation respecting the language of commerce and business (“Draft Regulation”). The Draft Regulation is meant to provide further guidance on the amendments to the Charter of the French language (“French Charter”) introduced by An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec (“Bill 96”) on June 1, 2022. The Draft Regulation is subject to a 45-day consultation period and is expected to pass by the summer of 2024, with most of the provisions coming into force by June 1, 2025.
While the amendments to the French Charter brought forward by Bill 96 resulted in many substantive changes pertaining to public signage and inscriptions on products, the precise impact of these changes remained unclear for many stakeholders. This article is meant to provide a brief summary of some of the updates introduced by the Draft Regulation.
Inscriptions on Products
Pursuant to Bill 96, the use of non-French trademarks on products was set to be restricted to “registered trademarks” under the Trademarks Act, starting June 1, 2025. For companies that rely on non-French trademarks, this became a concern due to the long timelines associated with trademark registrations and common delays in product commercialization. Under the Draft Regulation, “registered trademark” now includes a pending application. Furthermore, until June 1, 2027, products that do not meet the new requirements can still be sold provided that they were manufactured prior to June 1, 2025, and no French version of the trademark was registered on the date of the Draft Regulation’s publication. This two-year phase-out period for non-compliant products, offers businesses additional time to meet the new requirements.
Public Signage
While Bill 96 strengthened several existing French Charter provisions related to the use of French on public signage and posters, the requirement that French must appear in a “markedly predominant” manner (even when the non-French trademark is registered) on such signs and posters, created some confusion. The Draft Regulation clarifies that "markedly predominant" threshold will be met where the French text is at least twice as large as the text in the other language and the legibility and permanent visibility of the French text are equivalent to those of the text in another language. The “sufficient presence of French” requirement has been repealed and thus companies will no longer be able to just add more French text of the same size as the non-French text in order to comply.
These are only some of the amendments introduced by the Draft Regulation that practitioners should be aware of when advising businesses that have operations in Quebec. That said, the Draft Regulation can still be amended before it is passed and further changes may ensue. Moreover, while the Draft Regulation offers clarity on various aspects introduced by Bill 96, practitioners should be alive to the various legal issues surrounding the amendments introduced to the French Charter, including constitutional challenges.
Any article or other information or content expressed or made available in this Section is that of the respective author(s) and not of the OBA.