.sarl

Overview

• .sarl is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) string derived from "Société à responsabilité limitée," a type of limited liability company.
• It was proposed under ICANN's New gTLD Program and delegated to the DNS Root Zone on 8 August 2014.

History

Applicants and Delegation

• Successful applicant: Donuts (Delta Orchard, LLC). Donuts became the only applicant after a private auction in June 2014 and the string was delegated on 8 August 2014.
• Previous applicant: mySARL GmbH.
• Both applicants submitted Public Interest Commitments (PICs) as part of their applications.

Contention and GAC Early Warnings

• The contention set was resolved via a private auction in June 2014, won by Donuts.
• Both applicants received GAC Early Warnings from national governments concerned about potential misuse or the need to restrict registrations for regulated SARL corporate forms.

Sunrise

• The registry announced a Sunrise period from 2 September 2014 to 1 November 2014.

Usage and Audience

• Intended audience: entities using the SARL corporate form (Société à responsabilité limitée) and other organizations that identify with the SARL acronym.
• The string is positioned for corporate identity use by limited liability companies that include the SARL designation.
• Donuts noted that other organizations (for example, the South African Rugby League) may also legitimately use the SARL acronym.

Registration Rules

• Donuts' stated approach (in its PIC) was to keep registrations open but to include an extra field in WHOIS to allow government entities to note whether a registrant has a verifiable legal corporate status.
• mySARL GmbH's PIC committed to restricting registrations to verifiable SARL entities only.
• Other technical details such as allowed characters, minimum/maximum registration periods, or additional eligibility steps were not specified in the provided source.

SEO and Brand Impact

• Governments' concerns and the applicants' differing PICs highlight trust and verification considerations for this TLD: restricting registrations can enhance trust for regulated corporate names but may limit openness.
• Donuts argued that open registration better aligns with New gTLD principles, avoids assuming malfeasance by registrants, and that verification/restriction could raise registration costs and overstep ICANN's technical remit.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Private auction (June 2014): Donuts won the contention set for .sarl; the other applicant withdrew after the auction.
• GAC Early Warnings:
  • Donuts received warnings from: Cameroon, France, Mali, Luxembourg, Burkina Faso, and Benin.
  • mySARL GmbH received warnings from: France and Luxembourg.
• Sunrise period announced: 2 September 2014 to 1 November 2014.

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

domain:       SARL

organisation: Binky Moon, LLC
address:      c/o Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)

contact:      administrative
name:         Vice President, Engineering
organisation: Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldadmin@identity.digital

contact:      technical
name:         Senior Director, DNS Infrastructure Group
organisation: Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldtech@identity.digital

nserver:      V0N0.NIC.SARL 2a01:8840:22:0:0:0:0:63 65.22.32.63
nserver:      V0N1.NIC.SARL 2a01:8840:23:0:0:0:0:63 65.22.33.63
nserver:      V0N2.NIC.SARL 2a01:8840:24:0:0:0:0:63 65.22.34.63
nserver:      V0N3.NIC.SARL 161.232.16.63 2a01:8840:fa:0:0:0:0:63
nserver:      V2N0.NIC.SARL 2a01:8840:25:0:0:0:0:63 65.22.35.63
nserver:      V2N1.NIC.SARL 161.232.17.63 2a01:8840:fb:0:0:0:0:63
ds-rdata:     30877 8 2 24db28de74191d33588c628d306be3457278f59ceca8104d2a81cfa7fcd8d6e6

whois:        whois.nic.sarl

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: https://www.identity.digital/

created:      2014-07-31
changed:      2023-09-12
source:       IANA