Changes coming up for .fr

Mid January, a bill was filed in France regarding .fr registrations. This bill has now been passed to the Senate and a decision is expected within a few weeks. If the Senate approves this bill, this would mean an important change regarding the registrations of .fr domain names.

From then on, it would become possible both for individuals and companies to register a .fr domain name without the requested ‘local presence’ in France. At the moment, you need to have a French company or a local address in France if you wish to register a .fr domain name. This condition would then disappear. Attention: this condition only disappears for individuals and companies with an address within the European Union. If you don’t have an address within the EU, the local presence condition remains.

It is expected that the Senate will approve this bill and that the more relaxed rules for .fr registrations for EU inhabitants will come into force on July 1st 2011 at the latest.

However many registrars already offer .fr registrations with local presence. This means that, if you don’t have a local address in France or a French company, you can still register a .fr domain name without a problem.