The battle of wine domain names looms

The international wine industry and the French are preparing to launch a battle against the Internet over the domain name suffixes “.vin” and “.wine”.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said that after a 60-day review, it found no problems with the process that gave preliminary approval in March to the opening of new areas.

An ICANN statement, referring to the process of launching new domain names, said that “parties with standing were given the opportunity to file formal objections… In this case, no such objections has not been filed against .vin or .wine”.

However, European winegrowers who make appellation wines are considering boycotting the proposed wine estate names.

The French wine industry, supported by its government, fears that the existence of these sites will open the doors to fraudulent use and counterfeiting. There is also concern about “cyber-squatting”, where individuals can register domain names and then charge others for their use.

The industry is supported by other wine regions, including Napa in California.

Pascal Bobillier Monnot, director of CNAOC – the national federation of AOC wine and spirits producers – told AFP that ICANN had been in contact with him to tell him that these suffixes would be put in place.

The CNAOC’s last hope would be a personal intervention from the president of ICANN, during the meetings which will open in London on June 22.

The CNAOC and its European counterpart, the European Federation of Original Wines, will “lead a vast information campaign to dissuade wine producers from purchasing their domain names ending in .vin or .wine (a boycott) and to inform consumers of the risks they run. consider purchases from websites using these domain names.

Currently, the only candidates who have applied in advance for .vin and .wine are an American group, Donuts Inc, and two companies, one based in Gibraltar and the other in Ireland.