.sarl

Status:	Proposed
country:	International
Type:	Generic
Category:	Commerce
More information:

.sarl is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program.

Applicants

1. Donuts (Delta Orchard, LLC)
2. mySARL GmbH

GAC Early Warning

Both applicants received a number of GAC Early Warnings. The warning system is noted as a strong recommendation on behalf of national governments to the ICANN Board that a given TLD application should be denied as it stands. Applicants are encouraged to work with objecting GAC members.

Donuts received warnings from: Cameroon, France, Mali, Luxembourg, Burkina Faso, and Benin. mySARL GmbH received warnings from France and Luxembourg. Many of the complaints were identical and all noted that SARLs are specifically regulated companies, especially in France, and must be restricted to actually verifiable SARLs or entities that can prove their SARL status is pending. The applications insinuated that current registration policies and enforcement mechanisms did not provide for this.

Donuts replied to France´s warning to .sarl, and its similar objections for .health, .architect, and .vin, with an impassioned defense of the validity of open registration for New gTLDs. In the case of .asarl it notes that there are other people and organizations that may use the SARL acronym, such as the South African Rugby League, other than those corporate entities that have their SARL title regulated by French law. It further notes that restricting registration unfairly assumes malfeasance on the part of the registrant, that no such restrictions exist for related domains in any exisiting gTLDs or ccTLDs, and that verification and restriction would inevitably raise the price of registration significantly. They go on to quote the GAC's own advice with regards to its contract with .xxx registry provider, ICM Registry, which notes that at that time the GAC was against any monitoring of TLD content given that it seems to overstep ICANN's technical mandate.

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).

Top-Level Domain