The opening of the .fr TLD to the European Union follows on from the appointment of AFNIC – on 2 March 2010 – as the Registry for the .fr extension, as specified by the French decree of 6 February 2007. The contractual framework that accompanied the appointment was a novel one, including, within two years from the date of designation, the opening of the .fr to entities domiciled in the European Union.
In parallel, the new legal framework for domain names in France established by the Act of 22March 2011 meant that domain names involved a number of new issues. All the French Internet extensions (.fr, .re, .wf, .pm, .tf. yt…) were affected by the new procedures resulting from the law, including the opening to Europe before on 31/12/2011. An opening that will help promote the differents territories that are Wallis and Futuna, French Southern and Antarctic territories, Reunion Island, St. Pierre and Miquelon and Mayotte.
What you need to know:
- From 6 December onwards, the extensions .wf (Wallis and Futuna), .tf (French Southern and Antarctic territories), .re (Reunion Island), .pm (St. Pierre and Miquelon), and .yt (Mayotte) operated by the AFNIC will be subject to the same registration rules as the .fr TLD.
- The technical specifications for these extensions, designed for use by registrars, are published in the operational news of the AFNIC website.
About Afnic
Afnic is the acronym for Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération, the French Network Information Centre. The registry has been appointed by the French government to manage domain names under the .fr Top Level Domain. Afnic also manages the .re (Reunion Island), .pm (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), .tf (French Southern and Antarctic Territories), .wf (Wallis and Futuna) and .yt (Mayotte) French Overseas TLDs.
In addition to managing French TLDs, Afnic’s role is part of a wider public interest mission, which is to contribute on a daily basis, thanks to the efforts of its teams and its members, to a secure and stable internet, open to innovation and in which the French internet community plays a leading role. As part of that mission, Afnic, a non-profit organization, has committed to devoting 11% of its Revenues from managing .fr Top Level Domain to actions of general interest, in particular by transferring €1.3 million each year to the Afnic Foundation for Digital Solidarity.
Afnic is also the back-end registry for the companies as well as local and regional authorities that have chosen to have their own TLD, such as .paris, .bzh, .alsace, .corsica, .mma, .ovh, .leclerc and .sncf.
Established in 1997 and based in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Afnic currently has nearly 90 employees.
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