.clubmed New gTLD Application
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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: Club Méditerranée S.A.
Application Downloaded On: 10 Apr 2015
String: clubmed
Application ID: 1-2079-28620
Applicant Information
- Full legal name
Club Méditerranée S.A.
- Address of the principal place of business
11 rue de Cambrai Paris - 75019 FR
- Phone number
+33 1 53 35 35 53
- Fax number
+33 1 53 35 36 10
- If applicable, website or URL
http://www.clubmed.com
Primary Contact
6(a). Name
Thibault VASSEUR
6(b). Title
Digital Project Manager
6(c). Address
6(d). Phone Number
+33 1 53 35 36 71
6(e). Fax Number
+33 1 53 35 36 16
6(f). Email Address
Secondary Contact
7(a). Name
Mathilde Lamazère
7(b). Title
Worldwide Internet and CRM Director
7(c). Address
7(d). Phone Number
+33 1 53 35 35 53
7(e). Fax Number
+ 33 1 53 35 36 16
7(f). Email Address
Proof of Legal Establishment
8(a). Legal form of the Applicant
Société Anonyme
8(b). State the specific national or other jurisdiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).
French Public Limited Company
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.
CU:PAR / CU:PAR
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
Heidi Kunkel Chief Executive Officer, East and South Asia & Pacific
HENRI GISCARD D’ESTAING Chairman
JANYCK DAUDET Vice President Latin America
MICHEL WOLFOVSKI Executive Vice President
OLIVIER HORPS Vice President Greater China
PATRICK CALVET Vice President Villages Europe-Africa
SYLVAIN RABUEL Vice President France Benelux Switzerland & New Markets Europe-Africa
SYLVIE BRISSON Vice President Human Resources
XAVIER MUFRAGGI Vice President North America
11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners
Name
Position
HENRI GISCARD D’ESTAING Chief Executive Officer
MICHEL WOLFOVSKI Chief Financial Officer
11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares
Name
Position
Gaillon Invest II
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.
clubmed
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.
The .clubmed string and A-Label were developed in line with and checked against the eligibility, stability and policy criteria as stated in the ICANN Applicant Guidebook - version 2012-01-11. The results of those checks are as follows:
- The string has less than 63 characters;
- The string in ASCII is composed of three or more visually distinct characters;
- The ASCII label consists entirely of letters;
- The string is not a reserved name as shown in section 2.2.1.2.1 - Reserved Names of the ICANN Applicant Guidebook - version 2012-01-11; and
- .clubmed is not identical or similar to any of the top 10 invalid TLD’s responsible for the majority of DNS pollution, as referenced in the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)’s report on this topic at http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄committees⁄security⁄sac045.pdf. It is likely that the .clubmed has not already been queried with meaningful frequency at the root. Therefore, it is unlikely that .clubmed will inherit significant invalid query traffic.
Due to the positive results of these checks, Club Méditerranée S.A. does not believe that the .clubmed gTLD will be subject to any operational or rendering problems.
- 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.
THE MISSION AND PURPOSE OF THE NEW RESTRICTED .CLUBMED gTLD IS TO BENEFIT INTERNET USERS BY ENSURING INCREASED TRUST AND CONFIDENCE THROUGH THE ELIMINATION OF USER CONFUSION AND ASSURANCE OF BRAND AUTHENTICITY.
The new .clubmed gTLD will operate as a restricted registry, in which Club Méditerranée S.A. (Club Med) can create and control domain spaces that promote its brand identity and authenticity. In this regard, the .clubmed gTLD will be used by Club Med to provide information, services and resources relating to its upscale holidays to consumers, tourists and guests in a way that promotes trust, convenience and utility. The .clubmed gTLD will provide an authoritative internet space for Club Med and, potentially, its affiliates and partners that are associated with the Club Med brand. Second and third level domains can then be utilised for marketing purposes, with internet users assured of brand authenticity.
Club Med, established in France in 1950, is a world specialist in upscale, friendly, multicultural and all-inclusive holidays. Club Med’s purpose is to be involved in the creation and⁄or operation, directly or indirectly, of all activities associated to hotels, holidays, leisure and entertainment. With around 80 resorts and 75 villages across 25 destinations such as Greece, Switzerland and the Maldives, Club Med is able to cater luxury vacations for different occasions such as honeymoons for couples and family beach vacations. As of 31 October 2011, Club Med employs over 10,000 staff members of 100 different nationalities to cater to provide its holiday services to its 1.2 million clients. Club Med also operates in about 40 countries such as Portugal, Australia, US, UK and Thailand. Club Med continues to grow on 5 continents to strengthen its brand identity with its upscale international clientele. Club Med is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext and generated a revenue of over €1.4 billion as of 31 October 2011. Driven by the changing expectations of its guests, Club Med is constantly innovating to develop what it has to offer – locations of natural beauty, wealth of activities, comfortable settings and tailored services. In this regard, consumer trust and continuous innovation are paramount considerations in all its activities.
Since the inception of the current domain name system, business activities conducted on the internet are constantly changing and evolving with increased complexity. The volume of commercial transactions over the internet is constantly growing and bringing benefits of simplicity and lowered transaction costs to businesses and consumers. However, at the same time, criminal activities over the internet including data breach, hacking and phishing activities have also become more sophisticated resulting in loss of consumer confidence beyond mere monetary harm. The .clubmed gTLD will facilitate greater trust and assurance from internet users connecting with Club Med online, whilst still allowing convenient and efficient interaction.
Club Med’s mission and purpose of the proposed new gTLD share ICANN’s initiatives to promote public interest. Club Med is committed to contribute towards achieving such initiatives in line with ICANN’s Affirmation of Commitments, which includes:
- consumer trust: the .clubmed gTLD registry will be operated in a centralised manner with a restrictive registration policy. Registration of domain names will only be available to Club Med, at this stage, which will provide added consumer trust that .clubmed domain names are trustworthy. As .clubmed domain names are subject to registration standards, policies and procedures under Club Med’s control, this eliminates the possibility of malicious conduct within the .clubmed domain space;
- competition: the proposed new gTLD is not intended to instigate competition and consumer choice at the level of registration of domain names among prospective registrants. Instead it is anticipated to contribute to ICANN’s initiatives to promote public interest through its operation focused on promoting consumer trust. Increased trust in the .clubmed gTLD will drive existing and new top level domain (TLD) registry operators to make improvements in mechanisms to improve consumer trust of their TLDs; and
- consumer choice: the proposed new gTLD will enable user-driven improvements and innovations assisting Club Med’s marketing efforts through its ability to create new second and third level domain names on demand. These names will provide the consumers with more choices for interacting with Club Med. As Club Med has effective control over the registration and use of domain names under the .clubmed domain space, this will also contribute towards general service innovations on the internet.
Given the restricted nature of the .clubmed gTLD, the projected number of registration is likely to be limited. It is anticipated that a more limited number of 5 domain names will be registered in the first year. However, over the next few years, the number of registrations is likely to increase up to 500 domain names as Club Med develops and implements new services and marketing campaigns with .clubmed.
At this stage, Club Med intends to restrict the use of the .clubmed gTLD to its own exclusive use. However, as .clubmed expands and evolves, Club Med may consider offering the use of second level domain names to its affiliates at a later date. In this endeavour, Club Med will continue to comply with all operational, technical and policy requirements, as well as maintaining consumer trust and the stability of the internet. Club Med will keep ICANN reasonably informed of any material developments relating to the .clubmed gTLD including compliance with the continued operations instrument obligations as set out in Specification 8 of the Registry Agreement.
Club Med intends to create relevant domain names for use including product, services or geographic names in the second or third level domain names. In accordance with registration policy and the proposed measures for protection of geographic names as outlined in response to Question 22, Club Med will use geographic names to localise its websites in the major commercial countries in which it operates, such as US, UK and Vietnam. It is anticipated that the use of geographic names will expand as Club Med expands its operations. The use of geographic names is intended to:
- connect internet users with relevant information as applicable to the territory; and
- comply with required rules and regulations in the national territory.
Club Med will also utilise Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) at the second level, initially including Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Korean. The use of IDNs will allow internet users to engage with .clubmed in their native language, creating a more positive user experience and encouraging diversity. As the use of the .clubmed gTLD evolves, it is anticipated that the use of IDNs, including additional languages, will increase within the .clubmed domain space.
Club Med is a well-recognised global brand with its “Club Med” trademarks registered in 119 countries and territories including EU, US, Hong Kong and India for the categories such as Vehicles (Class12); Transportation and storage (Class 39); Hotels and restaurants (Class 43); Medical, beauty & agricultural (Class 44) and Personal (Class 45).
Further, Club Med has an extensive domain name portfolio including 72 existing domain names with an exact match to the applied-for .clubmed string and its “Club Med” trademarks in spaces such as clubmed.asia, clubmed.cn, clubmed.eu, clubmed.fr, clubmed.com and clubmed.net. Club Med also has over 250 existing domain names containing the term “Club Med” in spaces such as clubmed-business.co.uk, clubmed-chalets.com, clubmed-villas.ch, clubmedjobs.jp, club-med.biz, club-med.se, club-med.es and club-med.com.sg.
18B. How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?
18(B)I. WHAT IS THE GOAL OF YOUR PROPOSED gTLD IN TERMS OF AREAS OF SPECIALTY, SERVICE LEVELS OR REPUTATION?
The key goals of the proposed new .clubmed gTLD are in line with ICANN’s Affirmation of Commitments: to promote consumer trust, competition and consumer choice. As a global brand renown for creating all-inclusive holidays, Club Med also seeks to foster its online reputation by differentiating itself from the tourism market and to provide an authoritative internet space through which Club Med is able to communicate with its customers securely, directly and effectively. The ability to create domain names on demand related to specific marketing, specialty service and product development supports these goals. Strengthened security measures, service levels and more effective functionality will provide a trusted and positive user experience.
18(B)II. WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE YOUR PROPOSED gTLD WILL ADD TO THE CURRENT SPACE, IN TERMS OF COMPETITION, DIFFERENTIATION, OR INNOVATION?
It is anticipated that the proposed .clubmed gTLD will make positive contributions to the wider internet community by providing:
DIFFERENTIATION (INCREASED TRUST):
The .clubmed gTLD will simplify how internet users interact with Club Med by providing a distinctive domain space. Club Med anticipates improved searchability with the .clubmed gTLD will allow internet users and its international clientele to directly navigate to the .clubmed gTLD site, saving time and resources searching for Club Med’s official site and the services offered by Club Med. This will, in turn, increase online traffic and the Club Med brand awareness amongst internet users, tourists and Club Med guests as well. Club Med also plans to tailor its online business to its diverse services and clientele with the use of second or third level domain names such as honeymoon.clubmed, ski.clubmed and sunholidays.clubmed to allow easier and more intuitive navigation for tourists and its guests. The current domain name system has shown that it is vulnerable to malicious abuses due to registration of domain names which seek to exploit consumer confusion. Club Med can address some of these vulnerabilities by maintaining complete control over the domain names registered under the .clubmed domain space. Together with consumer trust, internet users will be able to rely on the authoritativeness of the domain names under the .clubmed domain space, which will add value to the interaction between internet users and Club Med online.
COMPETITION:
The differentiation of the .clubmed gTLD as a trusted site for Club Med will drive existing and new TLD registry operators to make improvements in mechanisms to improve consumer trust of their TLDs. Internet users will be encouraged to interact with domain names under the .clubmed domain space thereby strengthening Club Med’s global presence online. As a result, .clubmed will have a flow on effect to enable increased competition. Therefore, the benefits of the proposed .clubmed will be distributed not only to its direct customers, but to the internet community at large forcing improved services and competitive pricing in the market place.
INNOVATION:
With the expansion of the internet community to all corners of the world, the existing TLD structure presents limitations, not only in the availability of domain names for registrants, but also to businesses and organisations establishing a coherent global online brand presence to meet their evolving business needs. It is often difficult to register a domain name in existing domain space due to unavailability of the desired name. This problem is amplified for organisations such as Club Med who work across many different jurisdictions and geographical markets. Even when the desired domain name is available, it may come with a high price tag associated with a purchase of such desired name from a third party. With the proposed .clubmed gTLD, Club Med plans to pilot a coordinated worldwide naming strategy to booster its global brand position. Club Med will have the ability to create second or third level domain names including the use of geographic names and IDNs on demand which are relevant to its customer base, services and products. Club Med will be able to combine its use of the domain space with innovative user focused marketing and services to address the currently unmet needs in the existing domain name system providing greater consumer choice.
18(B)III. WHAT GOALS DOES YOUR PROPOSED gTLD HAVE IN TERMS OF USER EXPERIENCE?
The proposed .clubmed gTLD will provide a positive user experience, which meets the changing and growing needs of the global internet community. Club Med will maintain control in the registration and use of domain names and will ensure that the new gTLD will only be used for purposes authorised by Club Med. Therefore, the .clubmed gTLD will:
- provide an easy and intuitive reference and access point for Club Med’s international clients and guests;
- promote easier user navigation within the .clubmed domain space;
- provide Club Med with more control to develop smarter communications with its users and more innovative tactical sales strategies for its prospective clients;
- represent authenticity thus promoting user confidence and strengthening its online global presence;
- direct internet users and its diverse international clientele to relevant information in a timely manner by creating domain names on demand, such as honeymoon.clubmed, golf.clubmed and spa.clubmed;
- use IDNs to enable Club Med’s multicultural customers to interact directly in their native language;
- use geographic names to localise its websites to connect with internet users in the relevant regions and to comply with local laws;
- enhance security and minimise security risks by implementing necessary technical and policy measures;
- strengthen brand reputation and user confidence by eliminating user confusion; and
- prevent potential abuses in the registration process reducing overall costs to businesses and users.
The .clubmed gTLD should address the concerns that the current domain name system is open to potential malicious abuse and user confusion in the registration processes. Although the current system allows an eligible party to lodge a claim through existing Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) or other dispute resolution processes, the .clubmed gTLD will reduce potential abuses in the registration processes and overall costs to internet users. User confidence in the domain name system will be strengthened, which will ultimately contribute towards promoting ICANN’s core values in benefiting the public interest.
18(B)IV. PROVIDE A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE APPLICANTʹS INTENDED REGISTRATION POLICIES IN SUPPORT OF THE GOALS LISTED ABOVE.
The proposed registration policy is attached in response to Question 28.
Only Club Med will be eligible to register domain names in .clubmed at this stage. The domain name registration processes will address the requirements mandated by ICANN, including rights abuse prevention measures.
18(B)V. 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.
Club Med is committed to protection of privacy and confidential information in accordance with its objective of increasing consumer trust and providing a safe and legitimate internet space for internet users. Privacy and confidential information will be protected in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations relating to internet security, privacy and user’s confidential information including Receipt No. 1253753 of the CNIL (French National Freedom of Information Commission), Article 38 of Act No. 78-17 (Freedom of Information Act), Data Protection Act 1998 (UK), Data Protection Directive 95⁄46⁄CE (EU) and Data Protection Directive 2002⁄58⁄CE (EU). Club Med’s website is also registered with the Commission Informatique et Libertés, the French Data Protection agency.
Club Med has also implemented its own privacy policy in its countries of operation to demonstrate its commitment to the protection of user privacy and confidential information. Privacy is of fundamental concern to Club Med’s customers and as such Club Med has a strong interest in ensuring a high level of privacy protection for its customers.
Club Med’s privacy policy in France covers the following aspects:
- Collection and use of information: Club Med only collects personal information when a user requests for more information about its products and services or to register to its newsletter or to participate in its online forums. Club Med will only use the information collected to respond to the specific user’s inquiries and to improve the information it provides about its products and services.
- Access to information: Club Med allows its users to access, modify or delete their information to ensure the accuracy of the information collected by Club Med.
Club Med also complies with all applicable legislation and regulations for the protection of its users’ private and confidential information in its countries of operations. For example, Club Med implements separate privacy policies for its US and UK operations as available on its websites.
As the .clubmed gTLD will only be available to Club Med, initially, the amount of personal data that will be collected for the purposes of operating the gTLD and made publicly available in the WHOIS database will be very limited. Club Med will provide a publicly available and searchable WHOIS look up facility, where information about the domain name status, registrant information including administrative and technical contact details can be found in accordance with Specification 4 of the Registry Agreement. In order to prevent misuse of the WHOIS look up facility, Club Med will utilise measures including a requirement where any person submitting a WHOIS database query is required to read and agree to the terms and conditions in accordance with the registration policy. This will include the terms of use that the WHOIS database is provided for information purposes only and that the user agrees not to use the information for any other purposes such as allowing or enabling the transmission of unsolicited commercial advertising or other communication.
Club Med will deploy Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) which is intended to benefit both Club Med and its users interacting with Club Med online. DNSSEC provides additional security by validating information in the transmission, therefore it is intended to benefit those who publish information in the domain name system (DNS) and the users who retrieve information from the new .clubmed gTLD. Club Med already implements measures to protect privacy or confidential information of its users against misuse, loss, alteration and unauthorised access. Such measures include the use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and the use of firewalls. Club Med is also ISO accredited (under the International Organisation for Standardization) for its management of privacy information.
Club Med will continue to apply all security measures currently implemented and will comply with all other policies and practices required by ICANN in the Registry Agreement and any relevant Consensus Policy for protecting the privacy and confidential information of registrants and users in the new .clubmed domain space.
18(B)VI. DESCRIBE WHETHER AND IN WHAT WAYS OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATIONS WILL HELP TO ACHIEVE YOUR PROJECTED BENEFITS.
The proposed new gTLD will be publicised by a media plan to promote recognition of the new gTLD within the internet community to be a trusted site and as a sign of authenticity.
During the initial stage of the operation of the proposed new gTLD, it is anticipated that internet users will be re-directed to current websites. However, over time, it is foreseen that communication to the internet community of the existence of the proposed new gTLD and encouragement to utilise the trusted site will contribute towards minimising malicious abuses and protecting internet users.
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?
As a restricted gTLD, registration will only be open to Club Med at this stage and no third parties will be able to register domain names under the .clubmed domain space. Therefore, it is not anticipated that third party trademark owners will incur costs in relation to the .clubmed gTLD. The affiliate entities wishing to register domain names at a later stage must ensure that all the policy requirements for registration are satisfied. Club Med will utilise the services of the proposed Trademark Clearinghouse to ensure that domain names registered and the use of those domain names, do not infringe any registered third party intellectual property rights.
No unaffiliated third party will be permitted to register domain names at this stage. It is estimated that time and money spent by consumers who have been targeted by malicious abuse in utilising services on the internet will reduce over time as a result of the new, trusted .clubmed gTLD.
18(C)I. HOW WILL MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS FOR A PARTICULAR DOMAIN NAME BE RESOLVED, FOR EXAMPLE, BY AUCTION OR ON A FIRST-COME⁄FIRST-SERVE BASIS?
The initial use of the proposed new gTLD will be restricted to internal business use and Club Med and affiliate entities are intended to be the registrants under the .clubmed gTLD. Therefore conflicts between multiple applications are not anticipated to occur.
18(C)II. EXPLAIN ANY COST BENEFITS FOR REGISTRANTS YOU INTEND TO IMPLEMENT (E.G., ADVANTAGEOUS PRICING, INTRODUCTORY DISCOUNTS, BULK REGISTRATION DISCOUNTS).
This gTLD will be used for internal purposes only, at this stage, so pricing incentives are not applicable or relevant.
18(C)III. 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 PLAN.
This gTLD will be used for internal purposes only, at this stage, so pricing incentives or pricing increases are not applicable or relevant as no additional fees are to be charged.