Digital menus in France: what the law actually requires

Moving your card to a digital menu changes nothing about what French law requires you to display. It does change how easily you comply: most of the obligations below are painful on paper and trivial on a menu you edit in three clicks. One important exception, the display outside your door, is worth knowing before you take the printed cards out of the window.

This is a practical guide, not legal advice: for your own case, have your display checked by a professional or by your département's DDPP.

1. Allergens: in writing, without the guest having to ask

EU Regulation 1169/2011 (INCO), applied in France by décret n° 2015-447, requires you to inform guests about the 14 declarable allergens in what you serve, including non-prepacked food, which is to say a plate served at a table.

• The information must be written and available without the guest asking for it. A waiter answering from memory does not satisfy it.
• It can sit on the menu itself, or on a document whose location is clearly signposted, provided it really is there and really is complete.

This is where a digital menu earns its keep: an allergen is entered once per dish, it travels with the dish, and it does not vanish in a rushed reprint on a Saturday night.

2. Price display: a QR code does not replace the window

The arrêté du 27 mars 1987 governs price display in establishments serving meals. Menus must be displayed outside, visible and legible from the outside, throughout service and from 11:30 for lunch and 18:00 for dinner at the latest.

A QR code stuck on the window is not legible from the outside: reading the price takes a phone, a connection and a tap.

In practice: keep a display readable with the naked eye outside, paper or screen, and use the digital menu at the table and online. The two are not in competition, and printing an up-to-date outside card is far easier when the reference menu is already digital.

Inside, prices must be inclusive of tax and service, and drinks must state their volume. Prices excluding service, or a drinks list with no volumes, are the classic findings.

3. Fait maison and meat origin

• Fait maison (décret n° 2014-1173): the wording, or the logo, may only describe a dish cooked on site from raw products. Using it is voluntary; claiming it is binding.
• Meat origin: mandatory for beef since décret n° 2002-1465, extended to pork, poultry and sheep in food service by décret n° 2022-65. It must be brought to the guest's attention by display, on the menu or on any visible support.

4. GDPR, from the scanning guest's point of view

Someone scanning a QR code to read a menu does not expect to be tracked. Two rules cover it:

• No advertising cookies or third-party trackers on the menu page. Strictly necessary cookies (language, session, cart) need no consent; everything else does, and the CNIL is explicit about it.
• No unnecessary collection. A menu needs no email, no account and no phone number to be read. If you take orders, ask only for what it takes to serve the table.

At ScanEat, the menu a guest reads sets no advertising cookie, data is hosted in France, and our team's access is covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. The detail is in our terms and data policy.

5. Two things people forget

• Accessibility. A menu only reachable by smartphone excludes the guest who has none, whose battery is flat, or who cannot read a small screen. Keep a few paper copies: commercial common sense before it is a legal question.
• Reusable containers. Under the AGEC law (n° 2020-105) a restaurant must provide a container on request for leftovers. Not a display obligation, but saying so on the menu saves the question.

The checklist

• Allergens filled in per dish, or a written document whose location is displayed
• Menu displayed outside, legible without a phone, at the required times
• Prices inclusive of tax and service, drink volumes stated
• Meat origin brought to the guest's attention
• "Fait maison" claimed only where it is true
• No advertising trackers on the menu page
• A few paper menus kept under the counter

Putting it all in one menu

With ScanEat, allergens, prices, descriptions and product origin live in a menu you edit from your phone, in French and English, and it updates on every table at once. Create your menu and try it on one table tonight.