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    • .fr

    Country-code top-level domainsDNSSEC

    Overview

    • .fr is the Internet country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for France.
    • It is administered and operated by the Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (AFNIC).
    • Intended for entities connected with France and is very popular within the country.

    History

    • Introduced / implemented on September 2, 1986.
    • Registry and sponsor: AFNIC.
    • DNSSEC: supported (DNSSEC: yes).
    • Registered domains: 3,979,042 (data as of 9 October 2022).
    • Since 2004, websites registered under .fr are archived and preserved by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

    Usage and Audience

    • Typical registrants:
      • Individuals, companies, organizations and international bodies connected to France.
      • Entities with residency or business presence in eligible territories (see Registration Rules).
    • Common use: national branding, French businesses and services, local organizations and personal sites targeting French audiences.

    Registration Rules

    • Eligibility:
      • Individuals must reside in a Member State of the European Union or in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein (EFTA members cited).
      • For French or foreign businesses, the registered office or main place of business must be located in the EU or the territories listed above.
    • Brexit-related rule:
      • Since 1 January 2021 UK residents cannot register new .fr domains; AFNIC stated domains registered by UK residents before 31 December 2020 remain unaffected.
    • Naming policies and content restrictions (AFNIC Naming Charter): registrants must ensure chosen names:
      • Do not include terms that might impinge on public order or morality or rights guaranteed by French law.
      • Do not infringe intellectual property rights or personality rights unless the registrant can demonstrate legitimate interest and good faith.
      • Are not identical or confusingly similar to the name of the French Republic, regional/local authorities or national/local public institutions unless legitimate interest and good faith can be shown.
      • Are not listed among terms subject to prior review by AFNIC.
    • Character set and label rules:
      • Allowed characters include a wide set of Latin letters with French accents and ligatures (for example: a, à, á, â, ã, ä, å, æ, c, ç, e, è, é, ê, ë, i, ì, í, î, ï, n, ñ, o, ò, ó, ô, õ, ö, œ, u, ù, ú, û, ü, y, ý, ÿ, ß), digits 0–9 and the hyphen (-).
      • Prohibited patterns and length:
        • Names cannot begin or end with a hyphen.
        • Maximum label length: 63 characters.
        • Hyphens in the third and fourth positions are not allowed, except for ASCII-encoded (punycode) labels prefixed with "xn--".

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • Archiving: AFNIC-registered .fr websites have been subject to harvesting by the Bibliothèque nationale de France since 2004.
    • Other domains administered under French authority (territories):
      • .bl (Saint Barthélemy)
      • .gf (French Guiana)
      • .gp (Guadeloupe)
      • .mf (Saint Martin)
      • .mq (Martinique)
      • .nc (New Caledonia)
      • .pf (French Polynesia)
      • .pm (Saint Pierre and Miquelon)
      • .re (Réunion)
      • .tf (French Southern Territories)
      • .yt (Mayotte)

    Operator

    Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (A.F.N.I.C.)

    Whois

    % IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       FR

organisation: Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (A.F.N.I.C.)
address:      7, avenue du 8 mai 1945
address:      Guyancourt 78280
address:      France

contact:      administrative
name:         TLD Admin Contact
organisation: Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (A.F.N.I.C.)
address:      7, avenue du 8 mai 1945
address:      Guyancourt 78280
address:      France
phone:        +33 1 39 30 83 05
fax-no:       +33 1 39 30 83 01
e-mail:       tld-admin@nic.fr

contact:      technical
name:         TLD Technical Contact
organisation: Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (A.F.N.I.C.)
address:      7, avenue du 8 mai 1945
address:      Guyancourt 78280
address:      France
phone:        +33 1 39 30 83 00
fax-no:       +33 1 39 30 83 01
e-mail:       tld-tech@nic.fr

nserver:      D.NIC.FR 194.0.9.1 2001:678:c:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      F.EXT.NIC.FR 194.146.106.46 2001:67c:1010:11:0:0:0:53
nserver:      G.EXT.NIC.FR 194.0.36.1 2001:678:4c:0:0:0:0:1
ds-rdata:     65381 13 2 8163abf45792942cf4ee38cca31f6a6832fcdc6d402338fc687827690c4132f6

whois:        whois.nic.fr

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: https://www.nic.fr

created:      1986-09-02
changed:      2025-07-31
source:       IANA

    Registrars