.sarl

Status:	Proposed
country:	International
Registry:	Donuts
Registry Backend:	Donuts
Type:	Generic
Category:	Commerce
Priority #:	508 - mySARL GmbH 641 - Donuts (Delta Orchard, LLC)
nTLDStats
Registrations:	1,039
Parked Domains:	568
Parked Domain %:	54.67 %
Important Dates
Delegation:	08 August 2014
General Availability:	12 November 2014
More Information:

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

Applicants

1. Donuts (Delta Orchard, LLC) - The applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here. Among the provisions in the PIC, Donuts states that it intends to keep registration open but that it will include an extra field in its Whois database to allow government entities to note whether the registrant has a legal corporate status.
2. mySARL GmbH The applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.

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, .hotel, and .vin, with an impassioned defense of the validity of open registration for New gTLDs. In the case of .sarl 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. It similarily responded to the warnings from the African nations as well.