Scroll to the footer of ten Quebec small-business websites and you'll often find the same row of links: "Legal notices · Terms of use · Terms of sale · Privacy policy". Click the first one and you'll read the name of the hosting company, a "publication director", sometimes the share capital. That template comes from France. It answers a French statute and crossed the Atlantic by copy and paste. When we rebuild a client's site as part of our services, it's one of the first pages we rewrite.
The page is useless, and it creates the feeling that the legal work is done while the obligations Quebec actually imposes are missing elsewhere on the site. Quebec law doesn't think in pages. It ties each obligation to a situation: running a business, collecting information, selling to consumers, offering a contract, sending commercial email. Let's take them one at a time.
The short answer, for the busy
No Quebec law requires a "legal notices" page: that is a French obligation, from France's 2004 law on confidence in the digital economy. What Quebec requires depends on what your site does. Every business must publish on its website the title and contact information of the person in charge of the protection of personal information (s. 3.1 of the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector), plus detailed information about its personal information governance policies (s. 3.2). As soon as a form collects personal information, a privacy policy must be published on the site (s. 8.2). If you sell to consumers, the Consumer Protection Act requires you to disclose your name, address, itemized price and return conditions before the contract is concluded (s. 54.4). Terms of use are optional, but any you publish must first be offered in French (s. 55 of the Charter of the French language).
Legal notices: a French obligation, and it stays French
In France, the law on confidence in the digital economy of June 21, 2004 (LCEN) requires every professional website to display information that identifies its publisher. According to the French government's Entreprendre Service Public portal, that includes the company's identity and address, its trade register number, its VAT number and the identity of the host; France Num adds the share capital and, for a site that publishes articles, the publication director. Failing to comply is punishable by one year in prison and a €75,000 fine.
Nothing like that exists here. We searched the official French text of the private-sector privacy act, the Consumer Protection Act, the Charter of the French language and the Act respecting the legal publicity of enterprises for "mentions légales", "hébergeur" (host) and "directeur de la publication". Zero hits. The legal publicity act requires registration, but never mentions websites: showing your Quebec enterprise number (NEQ) is allowed, not required.
Keeping a page that names your host exposes you to nothing. The cost is elsewhere: it's the page everyone mentally ticks off as "legal: done".
What Law 25 asks of every business with a website
The first circle doesn't depend on what your site does, only on the fact that you run a business. Section 3.1 of the private-sector act makes the person with the highest authority the person in charge of the protection of personal information, a role that can be delegated in writing. Their "title and contact information" must be published on the enterprise's website. The statute says title, not name: a generic address like privacy@yourdomain meets the text, as long as someone reads it.
Section 3.2 is the one almost every site forgets. A business must have governance policies for personal information (retention and destruction, staff roles, complaint handling) and publish "detailed information about those policies and practices" on its website, in simple and clear language. That is a different thing from a privacy policy, although nothing stops you from putting both on the same page.
The second circle is triggered by collection. Section 8.2 requires anyone who "collects personal information through technological means" to publish a confidentiality policy on the enterprise's website. A contact form is enough to put you there. Our Law 25 privacy policy example covers its structure, and our piece on cookies and forms covers section 8.1, which applies only if the site uses technology that can identify, locate or profile the visitor.
Instead of terms of sale: section 54.4
In France, terms of sale must appear on the site as soon as you sell to individuals. In Quebec, the functional equivalent sits in the Consumer Protection Act, and it targets a moment rather than a page.
First, who's covered. Section 2 limits the Act to contracts between a consumer and a merchant. An engineering firm or a manufacturer that sells only to businesses is outside it.
For everyone else, section 54.4 lists what must be disclosed before a distance contract is concluded: your name and any other name you use, address, phone number and technological address, a detailed description of the goods, an itemized price with related charges, the total payable, performance dates, delivery method, and the cancellation, return, exchange or refund conditions. The merchant must present this "prominently and in a comprehensible manner" and "bring it expressly to the consumer's attention". A terms-of-sale page linked in the footer doesn't do that. Section 54.5 adds the right to accept, decline or correct the order before paying. All of this lives in the checkout flow, as our article on what the Consumer Protection Act imposes on your store walks through step by step.
Terms of use: useful in a few cases, theatre in the rest
No Quebec law requires terms of use. They become useful once the site does more than inform (user accounts, a client portal, reviews posted by visitors, a service sold to businesses), because they then set real rules: who may post what, who owns uploaded content.
For a brochure site, the page is mostly set dressing, and translated American templates can make it counterproductive. The Civil Code and the Consumer Protection Act neutralize several of their favourite clauses.
"By browsing this site, you agree to these terms." In a consumer or adhesion contract, an external clause is null if it was not expressly brought to the person's attention when the contract was formed (Civil Code, art. 1435). A small footer link doesn't do that.
Limitation of liability. Section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act prohibits any stipulation freeing a merchant from the consequences of their own act.
Mandatory arbitration and class action waivers. Prohibited by section 11.1.
"The courts of Delaware have exclusive jurisdiction." Article 3149 of the Civil Code gives Quebec authorities jurisdiction when the consumer lives in Quebec, and the consumer's waiver cannot be set up against them.
"We may change these terms at any time." Section 11.2 allows a unilateral amendment only with written notice at least 30 days ahead, and bars it for an essential element such as the price, except in a service contract of indeterminate duration.
More broadly, article 1437 of the Civil Code voids any abusive clause in a consumer or adhesion contract, and section 19.1 of the Consumer Protection Act requires a stipulation that is inapplicable in Quebec to be preceded by a statement saying so. Short terms written for your actual situation beat ten imported pages.
The language of legal pages
Section 52 of the Charter of the French language covers catalogues, order forms "and any other documents of the same nature" available to the public, "regardless of the medium used": the French version must be available on terms at least as favourable as any other. Our article on bilingual websites and Bill 96 covers the rest of the site.
Contract pages carry an extra rule. Since June 1, 2023, section 55 requires every contract of adhesion to be provided in French first. Terms of use or sale that visitors accept without being able to negotiate them are the textbook case. The Office québécois de la langue française specifies that for a contract concluded by technological means such as a website, the obligation is met if the site is available in French and the French version of the contract is accessible there. English-only terms on a French-language site, copied from an American vendor, fail that test.
Your newsletter form is a legal page too
Canada's anti-spam legislation mainly governs the emails themselves (s. 6: sender identification, contact details valid for 60 days, an unsubscribe mechanism). It also reaches your site, because the sign-up form is a request for consent. The Act requires the request to state the purposes of the consent (s. 10), and the CRTC's Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations (SOR/2012-36, s. 4) add your name, your mailing address and either a phone number or an email or web address, plus a statement that the person can withdraw consent. A bare "Subscribe" box is incomplete. The details are in our article on CASL and your newsletter.
Where to start
Replace the inherited row of links with what your site actually does. One "Privacy" page that brings together the title and contact information of the person in charge (s. 3.1), information about your governance policies (s. 3.2) and your privacy policy (s. 8.2). If you sell to consumers, the section 54.4 information inside the checkout flow, before the "Pay" button. Terms of use if you have accounts, a portal or user content, French first. Under every newsletter form, the purposes of the consent and the elements required by the CRTC regulations.
If your clients look for a "Legal notices" link out of habit, keep the label and put your contact details behind it. We run this inventory on every site we build or take over.
→ Let's talk about your website
This article explains legal obligations in plain language to help a small business ask the right questions. It is not legal advice: the rules described have exceptions depending on the sector, the type of contract and the clientele, and a professional order may require additional statements. Check your situation with a lawyer. The official text of the statutes, on LégisQuébec and the federal Justice Laws website, prevails.
Written byXavier Peich