.LANCOME New gTLD Application
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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: L'Oréal
Application Downloaded On: 23 Jan 2015
String: LANCOME
Application ID: 1-1301-74397
Applicant Information
- Full legal name
L'Oréal
- Address of the principal place of business
41, rue Martre Clichy - 92117 FR
- Phone number
+33147567991
- Fax number
+33147567032
- If applicable, website or URL
http://www.loreal.com
Primary Contact
6(a). Name
Vanessa Lalande
6(b). Title
VP Digital & CRM – Lancome International
6(c). Address
6(d). Phone Number
00 33 1 4964 7351
6(e). Fax Number
(202) 223-9256
6(f). Email Address
Secondary Contact
7(a). Name
Joshua Bourne
7(b). Title
Managing Partner
7(c). Address
7(d). Phone Number
+1 202 223 9252
7(e). Fax Number
+1 202 204 5205
7(f). Email Address
Proof of Legal Establishment
8(a). Legal form of the Applicant
Corporation
8(b). State the specific national or other jurisdiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).
France
8(c). Attach evidence of the applicant's establishment.
Attachments are not displayed on this form.
9(a). If applying company is publicly traded, provide the exchange and symbol.
Euronext / OR.PA
9(b). If the applying entity is a subsidiary, provide the parent company.
9(c). If the applying entity is a joint venture, list all joint venture partners.
Applicant Background
11(a). Name(s) and position(s) of all directors
Name
Position
Annette Beneteau Roux Director
Bernard Kasriel Director
Charles-Henri Filippi Director
Francisco Castaner Basco Director
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers Director
Jean-Paul Agon Chairman of the Board of Directors and Managing Director
Jean-Pierre Meyers Vice-Chariman and Director
Lilian Schueller Bettencourt Director
Lindsay Owen-Jones Director
Louis Schweitzer Director
Marc Ladriet De Lacharriere Director
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe Director
Werner Bauer Director
Xavier Joseph Louis Marie Fontanet Director
11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners
Name
Position
Alexandre Popoff Managing Director Latin America Zone
An Verhulst-Santos General Manager L'Oreal Professional Products Division
Brigittte Liberman President L'Oreal Active Cosmetics Division
Christian Mulliez Executive Vice-President, Administration and Finance
Frédéric Rozé Managing Director, North America Zone
Geoff Skingsley Managing Director Africa Middle East Zone
Jean-Jacques Lebel President, L'Oreal Consumer Products Division
Jean-Philippe Blanpan Managing Director, Operations
Jerome Tixier Managing Director, Human Resources
Jochen Zaumseil Managing Director, Asia, Pacific Zone
Laurent Attal Executive Vice President, Research and Innovation
Marc Menesguen Managing Director Strategic Marketing Department
Nicolas Hieronimus Managing Director, L'Oreal Luxe
Sara Ravella Managing Director Corporate Communications, Sustainable Development and Public Affairs
11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares
Name
Position
Nestlé Not Applicable
TETHYS Incorporated Not Applicable
11(d). For an applying entity that does not have directors, officers, partners, or shareholders: Name(s) and position(s) of all individuals having legal or executive responsibility
Applied-for gTLD string
- Provide the applied-for gTLD string. If an IDN, provide the U-label.
LANCOME
14A. If applying for an IDN, provide the A-label (beginning with "xn--").
14B. If an IDN, provide the meaning, or restatement of the string in English, that is, a description of the literal meaning of the string in the opinion of the applicant.
14C1. If an IDN, provide the language of the label (in English).
14C2. If an IDN, provide the language of the label (as referenced by ISO-639-1).
14D1. If an IDN, provide the script of the label (in English).
14D2. If an IDN, provide the script of the label (as referenced by ISO 15924).
14E. If an IDN, list all code points contained in the U-label according to Unicode form.
15A. If an IDN, upload IDN tables for the proposed registry. An IDN table must include:
the applied-for gTLD string relevant to the tables,
the script or language designator (as defined in BCP 47),
table version number,
effective date (DD Month YYYY), and
contact name, email address, and phone number.
Submission of IDN tables in a standards-based format is encouraged.
15B. Describe the process used for development of the IDN tables submitted, including consultations and sources used.
15C. List any variants to the applied-for gTLD string according to the relevant IDN tables.
- Describe the applicant's efforts to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for gTLD string. If such issues are known, describe steps that will be taken to mitigate these issues in software and other applications.
L’Oréal has consulted various experts in the field of domain names, including its selected back-end registry operator, VeriSign, Inc. which has successfully launched a number of new gTLDs over the last decade and is currently managing various TLDs, including .COM. Furthermore, the applied-for .LANCOME string is a string that entirely consists of standard US ASCII characters, as is the case with most extensions currently available in the DNS. Therefore, to L’Oréal’s best knowledge and belief, no specific issues are to be expected as regards the operation and rendering of the .LANCOME gTLD. In reaching this determination, the following data points were analyzed:
-ICANN’s Security Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) entitled Alternative TLD Name Systems and Roots: Conflict, Control and Consequences (SAC009);
-IAB - RFC3696 “Application Techniques for Checking and Transformation of Names”
-Known software issues which Verisign has encountered during the last decade launching new gTLDs;
-Character type and length;
-ICANN supplemental notes to Question 16; and
-ICANN’s presentation during its Costa Rica regional meeting on TLD Universal Acceptance.
- OPTIONAL.
Provide a representation of the label according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/).
18A. Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD.
18.1 MISSION & PURPOSE
18.1.1 THE L’Oréal FAMILY OF BRANDS
L’Oréal is a leading global consumer products company serving the needs of consumers around the world with 23 brands in five different segments. L’Oréal has 68,900 employees and its products are available for purchase online and in stores and outlets in over 130 countries.
L’Oréal content is available across a range of TLDs, including but not limited to: .COM, .CA, .CZ, .CO.UK, .FI, .FR, .DE, .IT, .NL, .NO, .PL, .RU, .ES, .TR, .HU, .EU, .AR, .BR, .MX, .HK, and .COM.AU.
L’Oréal has an extensive global family of brands and business units that prominently incorporate and make use of various L’Oréal trademarks. These brands are listed below. For more information, see http:⁄⁄www.loreal-finance.com⁄eng⁄annual-report.
- Consumer Products
L’Oréal Paris
Garnier
Maybelline New York
SoftSheen-Carson
CCB Paris
- Professional Products
L’Oréal Professional
Kérastase
Redken
Matrix
Mizani
Pureology
Shu Uemura Art of Hair
- Luxury Products
Lancôme
Biotherm
Helena Rubinstein
Kiehl’s
Shu Uemura
Giorgio Armani
Ralph Lauren
Cacharel
Viktor & Rolf
Diesel
YSL Beauté
Maison Martin Margiela
Stella McCartney
- Active Cosmetics
Vichy
La Roche Posay
Innéov
Skinceuticals
Sanoflore
Roger&Gallet
- The Body Shop
Through the richness of its portfolio of international brands, and its expertise in all major distribution channels, L’Oréal has always aimed to offer the widest possible choice to consumers. 2010 marked the beginning of a new phase of conquest to ensure that the greatest number of people have access to its 23 global brands.
As the Internet continues to connect consumers with brands in the global digital marketplace, an innovative digital strategy will lie at the epicenter of L’Oréal’s mission to reach two billion customers in the coming years. The .LANCOME gTLD has the potential to be a central part of this strategy, and will allow L’Oréal to deliver information, goods, and services to the online marketplace in a secure environment.
18.1.2 MISSION AND PURPOSE OF THE .LANCOME GTLD
Through a unified corporate approach, L’Oréal intends to submit 9 gTLD applications for the branded strings .LOREAL, .欧莱雅, .GARNIER, .KERASTASE, .KIEHLS, .LANCOME, .MAYBELLINE, .MATRIX and .REDKEN.
The intended future mission and purpose of the .LANCOME gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace provided by L’Oréal and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, to L’Oréal customers, consumers, and Internet users. L’Oréal will be the entity to file this application and bring the .LANCOME gTLD to market.
Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a .BRAND gTLD specification in the current round, it is widely anticipated in the brand community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs. The .LANCOME gTLD is intended to be one of those .BRAND gTLDs, with the goal of protecting L’Oréal’s online presence and identity, expanding its marketing and promotion efforts, providing a secure channel for online products and services, and offering a platform through which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of L’Oréal.
L’Oréal intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .LANCOME gTLD to L’Oréal and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow L’Oréal to establish its operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement is intended to exempt L’Oréal from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
L’Oréal currently plans a four-stage rollout for the .LANCOME gTLD. The dates of these stages are subject to change depending upon business, strategic, and industry factors.
- Stage One
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve L’Oréal registering a limited number of .LANCOME second-level domain names.
This initial use will provide L’Oréal’s IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using the .LANCOME gTLD domain names, interoperability with various software and Web-based applications, and unbroken and secure use of all names. This initial allocation will also allow the appropriate L’Oréal staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the delegation and setup phases of the .LANCOME gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.
- Stage Two
Once all testing has been successfully completed, L’Oréal will begin allocating domain names in .LANCOME for more widespread internal corporate use. During this same period of time, L’Oréal will begin evaluating strategies to potentially migrate traffic away from its current patchwork network of second-level domain names, which are registered in a variety of TLDs, to L’Oréal’s new gTLD.
It is in Stage Two that L’Oréal will evaluate expanding the operations of the gTLD to permit registration by other registrants such as licensees or other strategic partners. Should an assessment of its expansion strategy lead to a decision to extend registration rights to other parties, this expansion is currently planned to take place during Stage Three, and likely after the first three years of operation. However, any expansion would be conditioned upon a review of the Specification 9 (Registry Code of Conduct) set forth in the template Registry Agreement to ensure compliance with L’Oréal’s business model.
- Stage Three
Depending upon the analysis of the evaluations undertaken in Stage Two, L’Oréal may begin to implement the permanent migration of Internet traffic away from the TLDs in which L’Oréal’s domain names are currently registered, and toward the new LʹOréal family of gTLDs. It is in this stage that L’Oréal also may implement its decision to extend registration rights to licensees or strategic partners, depending upon compliance with Specification 9 as noted above.
After consideration of the following factors: analysis of L’Oréal’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that L’Oréal will have full control over the number of registrations in the .LANCOME gTLD namespace, L’Oréal expects that the number of domain name registrations will be less than 10,000 in the first five years of operation.
- Stage Four
Based on its experience during the initial stages of operation, and based on its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage Three, L’Oréal will assess whether its business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to a broader class of licensees, including potential customers of L’Oréal. It is anticipated by L’Oréal that changes to the domain name industry, and particularly the impact of .BRAND gTLDs, may take approximately five years to be realized and assessed. Any decision to expand the gTLDs beyond corporate, qualified subsidiary⁄affiliate, and licensee use will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.
The potential use of the .LANCOME gTLD will also be driven by L’Oréal’s future business strategies as identified in L’Oréal’s annual report and investor filings, see http:⁄⁄www.loreal-finance.com⁄eng⁄key-figures.
18B. How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?
18.2 HOW DO YOU EXPECT THAT YOUR PROPOSED GTLD WILL BENEFIT REGISTRANTS, INTERNET USERS, AND OTHERS?
L’Oréal believes that the proposed .LANCOME gTLD has the potential to offer the following benefits to Internet users and consumers:
-Establish a trusted source of information and online marketplace for the millions of consumers who purchase goods and services through L’Oréal’s websites, for investors and third parties seeking information, and for the general Internet user population;
-Provide L’Oréal and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates with short and memorable Internet addresses; provide increased navigation to products, services, advertising campaigns, public interest content, public awareness initiatives, etc.;
-Through the adoption of new gTLDs by the wider Internet user community, consumers may benefit from a lower incidence of phishing and malware often associated with mistypes of domain names in the .COM and other spaces that are owned by cybersquatters, since consumers will be navigating to domain names in the .LANCOME gTLD;
-Minimize the cost and need for defensive registrations because domain names will only be allocated by L’Oréal within the .LANCOME gTLD to L’Oréal, its subsidiaries, and affiliates;
-Develop a potential platform for the secure access to, purchase of, and distribution of Lancôme products and information to consumers, in order to minimize the potential for counterfeit or infringing goods and services; and
-Help to accelerate the development of secure and stable e-commerce platforms for all its brands.
Currently L’Oréal operates a number of corporate websites using a combination of second-level and top-level domain names. A representative sampling of L’Oréal websites that incorporate geographical identifiers into the domain name include:
LancomeChina.com
Lancome.fr
LancomeSpain.com
Lancome.dk
L’Oréal believes that the .LANCOME gTLD can provide an online single-source identifying function for its current and future customers around the world, instead of the present mix-and-match approach that L’Oréal is currently forced to resort to in delivering online content to consumers in each of the major world regions.
In new markets, L’Oréal grew nearly twice as fast as its competitors in the cosmetics market, thanks to its brands’ globalization and recognition in many developing countries. 36.8% of the companyʹs cosmetics sales were attributable to new markets, including those in Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. L’Oréal believes that the .LANCOME gTLD can further accelerate its growth in these regions, especially those in which Internet use has been rapidly advancing, by providing an intuitive, single-source identifier for consumers to access its content in a secure space online.
18.2.1 WHAT IS THE GOAL OF YOUR PROPOSED GTLD IN TERMS OF AREAS OF SPECIALTY, SERVICE LEVELS, OR REPUTATION?
The primary mission and purpose of the .LANCOME gTLD is to provide a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive online marketplace to aggregate Lancôme content, information, and other goods and services. As L’Oréal continues to expand, the company will further pursue and develop opportunities to market and distribute its online content and products to consumers around the world, and on various platforms, including the Internet and mobile devices.
Given that customers increasingly demand access to the L’Oréal brand through a variety of channels, which include domain names, L’Oréal believes that the .LANCOME gTLD has potential to provide an innovative virtual avenue to Lancôme products that will deepen and broaden the companyʹs relationship with consumers.
Most importantly, L’Oréal will be able to provide access to its products and online content in a secure namespace devoid of piracy, cybersquatting, and other malicious activities. While consumer products companies such as L’Oréal fight a never-ending battle to protect valuable intellectual property from piracy on the Internet, the .LANCOME gTLD would offer consumers a safe and intuitive means of accessing authorized content from L’Oréal and its affiliates. Providing consumers with a trusted experience is paramount to L’Oréal, and the .LANCOME gTLD will be used to further that goal.
L’Oréal is supportive of existing anti-cybersquatting legislation and consumer protection measures, including the U.S. Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) as well as the equivalent in the European Union, the E-Privacy Directive. As L’Oréal invests in expanding the domain name space through the establishment of the .LANCOME gTLD, it will also actively prevent cybersquatting, fraud, phishing, and other malicious activities within the .LANCOME gTLD. Maintaining the highest standards within the .LANCOME gTLD will give L’Oréal the opportunity to take a proactive approach to protecting intellectual property rights and fostering a safer online experience for all Internet users.
18.2.2 WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE YOUR PROPOSED GTLD WILL ADD TO THE CURRENT SPACE, IN TERMS OF COMPETITION, DIFFERENTIATION, OR INNOVATION?
As a branded gTLD, the primary driving factors of the .LANCOME gTLD are differentiation and innovation. The success of the gTLD will be measured not by the number of domain names registered, but rather by the levels of consumer recognition and trust that are placed in the .LANCOME gTLD. Using this benchmark, L’Oréal will strive to build consumer recognition and trust through usage of the .LANCOME gTLD that rise to the levels found in the .EDU and .GOV gTLDs.
As noted above, L’Oréal is a leading global consumer products company that leverages numerous distribution channels and emerging technologies to deliver its online content and consumer goods to customers internationally. The .LANCOME gTLD has the potential to serve as a cornerstone of this online strategy.
18.2.3 WHAT GOALS DOES YOUR PROPOSED GTLD HAVE IN TERMS OF USER EXPERIENCE?
L’Oréal believes that the .LANCOME gTLD will provide a single, trusted ecosystem experience for the millions of consumers worldwide who purchase the company’s products, as well as those who seek information about Lancôme, including investors and members of the press. Consumers will know that domains and content on .LANCOME are owned and controlled by L’Oréal and are thus more likely to be protected from infringing, pirated, or harmful content.
The initial use of the .LANCOME gTLD will involve a limited number of second-level domain names. This initial use will provide L’Oréal the ability to ensure seamless and secure access to L’Oréal’s websites and interoperability with various software and Web⁄mobile-based applications. Once appropriate security and stability issues have been satisfactorily addressed, L’Oréal will likely begin allocating domain names for internal corporate use and may redirect new .LANCOME domain names to pre-existing content. This phased rollout will likely take place over a multi-year period, subject to change depending upon a range of external factors.
At the same time, L’Oréal will evaluate potential strategies to migrate traffic away from the current network of second-level domains registered in various gTLDs, to the .LANCOME gTLD, which offers the potential to provide customers with a single, trusted online source for Lancôme products and services.
18.2.4 PROVIDE A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE APPLICANT’S INTENDED REGISTRATION POLICIES IN SUPPORT OF THE GOALS LISTED ABOVE.
L’Oréal currently intends for the .LANCOME gTLD to be used exclusively by L’Oréal and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. Because of this condition, and because the Lancôme mark is a valuable brand, the protection of which is paramount to the company, L’Oréal intends to address registration and use requirements in its qualified subsidiary and affiliate agreements, rather than in a domain name registration agreement.
L’Oréal will, of course, incorporate all required ICANN consensus policies and other legal⁄policy requirements imposed on new gTLD applicants into the terms and conditions of the domain name registration agreement that each qualified subsidiary and affiliate will execute.
18.2.5 WILL YOUR PROPOSED GTLD IMPOSE ANY MEASURES FOR PROTECTING THE PRIVACY OR CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION OF REGISTRANTS OR USERS? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY SUCH MEASURES.
As a global retail company, L’Oréal respects the privacy of its customers and other consumers. The company employs a variety of physical, electronic, contractual, and managerial safeguards to protect personal and confidential information in its stores and on its websites. L’Oréal will take similar precautions to protect registrant and user data associated with the .LANCOME gTLD. Furthermore, due to the fact that, at least initially, every domain name will be registered to L’Oréal or a qualified subsidiary of affiliate, L’Oréal has a vested interest in ensuring that accurate and current domain name information is readily available in connection with each .LANCOME domain name.
L’Oréal will ensure that the operation of the .LANCOME gTLD will be consistent with L’Oréal’s Statement of Privacy Principles, available on its website at http:⁄⁄www.loreal.com⁄_en⁄_ww⁄tools⁄privacy⁄privacy_1.aspx.
In addition, L’Oréal intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry-Registrar Agreement (RRA) modeled after language that has been included in the template Registry Agreement that has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD Registry Operators. The template Registry Agreement states, “Registry Operator shall (i) notify each ICANN-accredited registrar that is a party to the registry-registrar agreement for the TLD of the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person (“Personal Data”) submitted to Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used under this Agreement or otherwise and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and (ii) require such registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for such collection and use of Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data collected from such registrar from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.ʺ
L’Oréal also recognizes that this is an evolving area of law for which there is no international standard.
18.2.6 DESCRIBE WHETHER AND IN WHAT WAYS OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATIONS WILL HELP TO ACHIEVE YOUR PROJECTED BENEFITS.
L’Oréal sees the potential for the .LANCOME gTLD to play a large role in the company’s future online strategy. While the extent of likely benefits is currently uncertain due to questions of consumer recognition, the adoption of new gTLDs, and the response from search engines in the marketplace, all of which may influence the communication, marketing and use strategies of the gTLD, L’Oreal anticipates a phased-in approach to using and promoting the gTLD, as described above.
As a first step, L’Oréal plans to start using .LANCOME domain names initially to redirect to content available on existing .COM domains. Subsequently, L’Oréal expects to initiate a targeted, pilot rollout using select gTLD domain names as primary addresses and, after careful analysis and study of this rollout, L’Oréal may engage in a broader initiative, should the results be satisfactory and in accordance with the company’s overall strategic goals. The actual usage of .LANCOME domain names will dictate what public communications and consumer outreach is done to encourage navigation to the .LANCOME gTLD, including advertising, media outreach, in-store communications, email campaigns, etc.
18C. What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences/costs imposed upon consumers?
18.3.1 WHAT OPERATING RULES WILL YOU ADOPT TO ELIMINATE OR MINIMIZE SOCIAL COSTS (E.G., TIME OR FINANCIAL RESOURCE COSTS, AS WELL AS VARIOUS TYPES OF CONSUMER VULNERABILITIES)?
L’Oréal’s proposed operating rules to limit registration to L’Oréal and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates will provide a trusted online environment for consumers to access Lancôme’s online content, and by default will minimize social costs. This verified ecosystem provides consumers with a single trusted source for Lancôme products and information with a substantially lower risk of fraud and⁄or scams. L’Oréal does not anticipate consumer vulnerabilities.
In addition, there is no need for other trademark and brand owners to defensively register second-level domain names in the gTLD. In fact, our expectation is that the usage of the .LANCOME gTLD will eliminate some of the vulnerabilities that L’Oréal customers face in the wider Internet today, as it will be a namespace devoid of piracy, cybersquatting and malicious content.
18.3.2 WHAT OTHER STEPS WILL YOU TAKE TO MINIMIZE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES⁄COSTS IMPOSED UPON CONSUMERS?
L’Oréal believes that the proposed operation of the .LANCOME gTLD as set forth in this application has no known negative consequences or cost implications to consumers. On the contrary, the proposed operation of this registry will likely lead to direct benefits to consumers by providing a unified framework for the access to and potential distribution of Lancôme’s goods and services, instead of the current patchwork of domain names registered across various gTLDs and ccTLDs.
18.3.3 HOW WILL MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS FOR A PARTICULAR DOMAIN NAME BE RESOLVED, FOR EXAMPLE, BY AUCTION OR ON A FIRST-COME⁄FIRST-SERVE BASIS?
L’Oréal does not envision multiple applicants for the same domain name, as domain names will be initially allocated only to L’Oréal and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates in accordance with L’Oréal’s business strategy.
18.3.4 EXPLAIN ANY COST BENEFITS FOR REGISTRANTS YOU INTEND TO IMPLEMENT (E.G., ADVANTAGEOUS PRICING, INTRODUCTORY DISCOUNTS, BULK REGISTRATION DISCOUNTS).
L’Oréal does not envision any advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, or bulk registration discounts because these marketing⁄commercial initiatives are inconsistent with the mission and purpose of the .LANCOME gTLD as a trusted online source identifier. Moreover, it is the current intention of L’Oréal to provide domain name registrations to itself and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates at no cost, though the company reserves the right to reevaluate this decision and may choose to impose a nominal fee in the future. Any potential registrant fees imposed upon licensees and strategic partners will be made in the future if this class of registrants are permitted to register domain names in the .LANCOME gTLD.
18.3.5 NOTE THAT THE REGISTRY AGREEMENT REQUIRES THAT REGISTRARS BE OFFERED THE OPTION TO OBTAIN INITIAL DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATIONS FOR PERIODS OF ONE TO TEN YEARS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE REGISTRAR, BUT NO GREATER THAN TEN YEARS. ADDITIONALLY, THE REGISTRY AGREEMENT REQUIRES ADVANCE WRITTEN NOTICE OF PRICE INCREASES. DO YOU INTEND TO MAKE CONTRACTUAL COMMITMENTS TO REGISTRANTS REGARDING THE MAGNITUDE OF PRICE ESCALATION? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR PLANS.
L’Oréal is committed to providing the domain name registration periods set forth in the Registry Agreement. However, as noted above, as a branded gTLD, the registration and use of the domain name by a third party is conditional upon eligibility requirements, such as a separate affiliate relationship with L’Oréal. Therefore, providing contractual commitments in a domain name registrant agreement regarding the magnitude of price escalations does not seem relevant or appropriate for the initial purpose of this gTLD. Additionally, as noted above, the current business model envisions L’Oréal providing domain name registrations to itself, its subsidiaries and its affiliates at no cost. However, L’Oréal may at its discretion make contractual commitments to charge a fee and increase or decrease the fees for the registration of domain names in this proposed namespace.
L’Oréal acknowledges that the current template Registry Agreement requires that the Registry Operator “shall offer registrars the option to obtain registration periods for one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar.” However, L’Oréal, and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, as the initial sole registrants within the .LANCOME gTLD, will only be registering domain names on an annual basis.