Domain Restrictions
To register and renew a .swiss domain name You must fulfill all the following requirements:
- a. You must be a legal entity with sufficient link to Switzerland. This occurs if You are:
- i. A public body or another public organization under Swiss public law;
- ii. A legal entity registered in the Swiss Commercial Register having its seat in Switzerland and an effective site of administration in Switzerland; or
- iii. An association or foundation not registered in the Swiss Commercial Register having its seat and an effective site of administration in Switzerland.
- b. At the time of the application, the requested name belongs to a category of names available for allocation.
- c. The intended use is legal under Swiss law. Be aware that if the domain name is used to provide products or services or to advertise them, a seat and an effective place of administration are required.
- d. The name applied for can legitimately be considered as objectively linked to the applicant or the intended use of the domain name. This occurs in particular if the domain name satisfies one of the following conditions:
- i. it contains a name for which the applicant holds a trademark right;
- ii. it refers to a name objectively linked to the State or its activities that is required by the respective public body or the public law organization concerned;
- iii. it contains a geographical designation, or a clear variation or abbreviation of a name, to which the applicant has a legitimate right or interest, to which it has a legitimate right or interest in the public mind, or it is authorized to use by the public body or bodies or other organizations concerned;
- iv. it reflects a name in which the applicant has a legitimate interest or which is associated with the applicant in the public mind; and
- e. The requested name is not a "Designation with a Generic Character", without prejudice to be eligible under the Registries naming mandate program as set forth in Section 6 of this Registration Policy.
In exceptional cases, the Registry may allocate domain names which do not meet the eligibility requirements set forth in this Section when the interest of this allocation for the Swiss community so justifies.
Please read the Registration Policy for further information:
The .swiss registry validation team had determined that a registered branch of a foreign company is not eligible for .swiss registrations.
Registrant Eligiblity criteria for the .swiss TLD are set forth in Art. 55 (1) of the Federal Ordinance on Internet Domains (OID) and in Art. 4 of the Federal Ordinance on .swiss. The eligibility of private institutions is constrained as follows:
- entities entered in the Swiss commercial register having their headquarters and an actual administrative site in Switzerland;
- associations and foundations not entered in the Swiss commercial register having their headquarters and an actual administrative site in Switzerland.
As a branch of a foreign company does not a have separate legal personality, the relevant headquarters are not in Switzerland. This means that branches of foreign companies are not eligible for .swiss registrations.
Unfortunately, during the .swiss launch period, a small number of applications by branch offices of foreign companies were allocated by error. The .swiss registration team has determined that these allocations "will be revoked unless the original applicant re-assigns the domains to an eligible party".
Special procedures for name space mandates(NSMs)
Generic names may be allocated in the form of name space mandates (NSM). NSMs are described under Article 56 of the Federal Ordinance on Domain Names:
- https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classified-compilation/20141744/index.html#a56
- https://www.admin.ch/opc/fr/classified-compilation/20141744/index.html#a56
- https://www.admin.ch/opc/it/classified-compilation/20141744/index.html#a56
A single NSM may comprise many domains. Applicants for NSMs must submit a proposal. Proposals for NSMs can be submitted in response to a Call for Proposals or spontaneously. Multiple domain names for a given purpose may be combined in a single mandate. As the pricing for NSMs is on a per-mandate basis rather than a per-domain basis, the average price per domain invoiced may be considerably lower (or higher) than the price for standard domain registrations. The key criteria for selection for an NSM is best service to the community. The mandate holder can select a registrar. The registrar can submit or take over NSM registrations after the negotiations between the registry and the mandate holder are complete, based on an exhaustive listing of domains belonging to the mandate and the use of authorization codes. A mandate may be subject to additions or removals of domain names.
The challenge process consisting of initial evaluation of the applied for domain names by the registry and publication of the registration applications for 20 days on the registry page still applies even after the Golive of the .swiss TLD. Other interested parties may submit competing domain name applications during this 20-day period. It is also possible to notify the registry of any problem in relation to the submitted registration application. Moreover, there are special requirements for generic domain names (naming mandate).
This means that all (multiple) registration applications will be processed in non real-time and reviewed and validated by the registry. They remain in the status "Pending" up to the final allocation or rejection.
Because of this situation and to allow multiple registration applications for the same domain name, we have decided to deactivate the regular AddDomain command for .swiss as of February 22, 2016. Instead, we will only accept AddDomainApplications in order to correctly map this complicated registration procedure in our system.