European domains: France (.fr)

Registration:

To register your French domain, click here!

Once the domain is registered

All French domain names registered with us are stored on our international server. Domains registered with us are automatically provided with their own under-construction page - this notifies potential registrants that the name has been acquired and is now registered. The under-construction page is offered free of charge and may be used indefinitely.

It is possible for Web and/or Mail forwarding to be provided for French domains.

Domain transfer/release fees are charged are by a majority of registrars, but BB Online make no charge to transfer a domain to another French domain name registrar.

Background

Along with .re (Reunion Island). and .tf, it is administered by AFNIC and registrations are processed via accredited registrars.

In September 1986 the INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, the French Computer Science Research Institute) was allowed to manage the ccTLD ".fr" This was done on behalf of the Stanford Research Institute's Network Information Center. INRIA therefor became NIC-France (Network Information Center), and initially it was to help their own researchers and the entire French research and development community.

In 1992 NIC-France/INRIA saw that the demand increased and NIC-France opened up to everyone in France who wanted to connect to the Internet. Then the commercial expansion of the Internet in 1994 led to that a NIC Consultative Committee (CC-NIC) was set up. This committee consisted of a representatives of INRIA and a representative from each of the service providers (ISP's) that had an international infrastructure at that time.

In 1995 the committee grew due to that many Internet service providers joined in something that resulted in a naming charter. This naming charter was created in order to set out the rules for assigning names in the ".fr" domain and to consider intellectual property issues for the first time.

On 1 January 1998, the Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (AFNIC), an association governed by the French law of 1 July 1901, took over from NIC-France and INRIA.

The AFNIC wanted to be more responsive to the future needs of its members and developed a flexible management structure that was not possible in a research institute.

On the 25th of June 2001 AFNIC opened the ccTLD ".re" at the request of the French government this would concern the overseas department of Reunion Island and ever since any individual or corporate entity based on Reunion Island has been able to register domain names as ".re" or ".fr".

The French Southern and Antarctic Territories (TAAF) has the ccTLD ".tf" and was in 1997 administrated by the British company AdamsNames in Cambridge however on the 23rd of October 2004 the French authorities requested that its management would be transferred to the AFNIC.

There also exist a number of second-level domains:.tm.fr - for owners of trademarks.asso.fr - for associations.nom.fr - for surnames.prd.fr - for research and development programs.presse.fr - for press publications.com.fr - open to all applicants without justification of the requested name.gouv.fr for the French administration. Apart from these six second-level domains AFNIC also reserves the right to introduce sector-based second-level domains. An example therefore would be the .gouv.fr domain reserved to identify the web addresses of French governmental institutions.

The ".tm.fr" domain is reserved for trademark holders looking to use their trademark such as registered or part of the "trademark field" as their domain name. The following supporting documents are required to receive the necessary authorisation code: Trademark registration application validated by INPI (French National Institute of Industrial Property) and the final OHIM or WIPO certificate, provided that France is included in the list of countries for the registration.

The .asso.fr domain is reserved for associations. To receive the authorisation code, the registrar must send AFNIC The full name of the association and the number of the department in which the association has been declared or its identifier number in the SIRENE enterprise database.

The .gouv.fr domain is reserved for the French government. The following supporting documents are required to receive the necessary authorisation code: An identifier number in the SIRENE enterprise directory or any other official document for identifying the entity and a ratification from the Directorate General for State Modernisation (DGME, la Direction Générale de la Modernisation de l'État).

Besides the already named 2LDN the following subdomains are available:

Registrants are entitled to use their domain name for twelve (12) months as from the last operation invoiced to the registrar by AFNIC and the domain names are automatically renewed, unless AFNIC receives instructions to the contrary from the registrar.

Domain names may comprise alphanumeric characters featuring letters from the French alphabet (A to Z), the numbers 0 to 9 and hyphens "-". Though a name can not begin or end with a hyphen "-" and not have more than 255 characters (63 between each "."). Please note that the 3rd and 4th characters can not be hyphens "xx--".

Applicants are free to choose the word(s) for their domain name and are solely responsible for their choice. However it will not be accepted if it meets any of the following criteria:

1) The name is a fundamental term, such as defined herein;

2) The name complies with the foregoing syntax constraints;

3) The name infringe the rules of fair competition and best business practices;

4) The name infringe third-party rights e.g. family names, organisatons etcetera (unless the applicant has a right or legitimate claim to the name and is acting in good faith)

5) The name is not accepted by the French Press Freedom Act 1881 wich means that it can not be likely to harm the physical, mental or moral development of children, it can not undermine the name, image and/or reputation of the French Republic and its national institutions.