The fight against abuse: Afnic opens a free mediation procedure

Simplifying dispute management in an effort to continuously improve our practices

Guaranteeing an ever-more secure and therefore trustworthy Internet for users is an absolute priority for Afnic, which has developed a range of services and mechanisms to successfully combat attacks on domain names in the long term. We notably offer two extra-judicial alternative dispute resolution procedures (Syreli and PARL Expert) which are currently widely used by rights holders and demand for which has been constantly growing since 2012.

To facilitate dispute resolution where both Parties could reach an amicable agreement, Afnic is introducing a free mediation procedure which will be officially available to anyone (natural or legal person) as of 3 July of this year. This procedure can only be initiated on a voluntary basis ahead² of an ADR³ procedure, and is aimed at rights holders and domain name holders who have reached a communication impasse or are involved in a dispute with the other Party concerning a domain name under one of the following TLDs: .fr, .pm, .re, .tf, .wf, .yt.

As such, this new amicable means to resolve disputes concerning domain names has the following 3 aims:

• To bring some of the disputes to a quick and entirely confidential conclusion: from the date of opening of a mediation procedure, the Parties, accompanied by the Mediator, have seven (7) business days in which to find a negotiated solution
  
• To propose a new way of resolving disputes free of charge, unlike the Syreli and PARL Expert procedures
• To limit publication of ADR (Syreli and PARL Expert) rulings to the cases in which the parties do not reach agreement

The mediation procedure is not designed to replace the ADR procedures, but rather to offer a new, quick, entirely confidential and free solution to amicably resolve disputes.

Opening of the service scheduled for 3 July 2023

This new mediation service will be officially made available on 3 July.

As of this date, any natural or legal person will be able to request the assistance of an Afnic mediator free of charge, in accordance with the regulatory provisions in force, by completing the form provided on the Afnic web page dedicated to mediation.

The Naming Policy and the Abuse & Dispute Management Policy have been modified accordingly and the updated versions will come into force as of 3 July 2023.

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^{1 – .fr, .pm, .re, .tf, .wf, .yt}

^{2 – 4 Article 14 of the agreement signed with the French State on 18 March 2022}

^{3 – Alternative Dispute Resolution}