The AFNIC publishes its first decisions in regards to its specific dispute resolution procedure for obvious breaches of the stipulations of the decree of February 6th, 2007

Press release
Saint Quentin en Yvelines, October 27th 2008

The AFNIC published its first decisions to apply the procedure opened on July 22nd to resolve the cases of obvious breaches of the stipulations of the decree of February 6th, 2007.

This procedure is reserved to the legal claimants defined by the decree, notably the local authorities and trademark holders. It applies to all the domains managed by the AFNIC and concerned by the decree.
This chargeable procedure takes place for 45 days and can only involve one domain name at a time. Request must be motivated and proof must given by the initiator of the case.

The domain name concerned is "frozen" by the AFNIC from the start of the procedure: it continues to function but can no longer be subject to technical or administrative modifications.
The decision is taken by the AFNIC but only focuses on the obvious cases. In the absence of this obvious characteristic, the dispute should be resolved by the usual procedures (Alternative Dispute Resolution procedures (ADR) or the courts).

To this day, the AFNIC received twenty cases within the framework of this procedure. Litigious domain names concern local authorities as well as public services or trademark holders.

Further information

Read the decisions (in French only).

Read the detailed rules of the procedure and access to the dispute resolution service.

About the AFNIC

(Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération )

Non-profit organization, the AFNIC is in charge of the administrative and technical management of the .fr (France) and .re (Reunion Island) Internet domain names.
The AFNIC brings together public and private members: representatives from the French government, Internet users and Internet Service Providers (Registrars).
Further information.