.fr Domain Name Registration

How Do You Register a .fr Domain Name?

The .fr domain extension, introduced in 1986, is for the intended use of entities associated with France. It is limited to:

• corporations with a registered office or branch in France;
• people or companies owning a trademark registered with France’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) or a registered EU or international trademark specifically stating France; and,
• people living in France or having French citizenship.

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Don’t meet .fr domain criteria?  Search here for .com domains & other gTLDs.

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Who Administers .fr Domain Names?

The AFNIC, a non-profit organization is responsible for allocating and managing .fr domain names, though it is not a registrar and does not directly sell .fr domain names to customers. When submitting an .fr registration application, the holder of a domain name must authorize an administrative contact and maintain this contact throughout the entire registration period. This contact can be changed via the registrar of the .fr registration.

.fr Registration Rules and Restrictions

For .fr registration, alphanumeric terms consisting of letters between A and Z and numbers from 0 to 9 and the hyphen symbol “-” are acceptable as .fr domain names. However there are certain .fr domain names that cannot be registered. These include:

• Domain names which consist of a single character or only two letters
• Domain names which begin or end with a hyphen “-”
• Domain names that comprise more than 255 characters
• Domain names that begin with “xn--”

The AFNIC maintains a list of prohibited and reserved terms in connection with registering a .fr domain name. It also has a takeover authority and a pre-emptive power, in particular where a term would be required to be added to the list of basic terms that cannot be allocated for .fr registration.