Starting December 6, 2011, registration of .fr will be open to individuals and companies in the European Union, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Previously, registration of a .fr domain name was not allowed for non-French citizens unless they had a local presence or the domain name was based on a registered trademark in France.
Extensions for the island of Réunion (.re), Mayotte (.yt), Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (.pm), Wallis and Futuna (.wf), and the French Southern Lands (.tf) will also follow these same rules.
The sub-extensions .tm.fr, .asso.fr, and .com.fr will not be available for registration after December 6, 2011, but domain names registered in these sub-extensions before this time will continue to be maintained. The new naming policy does not apply to top-level domain names other than those listed, specifically country-code top-level domain names (ccTLD); generic top-level domain names (gTLD); and domain names for which AFNIC will assume the role of service provider (back end registry).
For more information on the new Naming Policy for the French Network Information Centre, visit AFNIC's website.
