Following the deregulation of the Swiss Franc (CHF) by the Swiss Central Bank, the exchange rate with other currencies has experienced a major and highly-criticized change (+20%!).
This decision is not without consequences for companies purchasing products from Switzerland. In our case, this effects the extensions operated by the Swiss registry SWITCH which manages the .CH and .LI extensions.
This is why, in accordance with our contract, we are forced to apply an increase of €1.50 excl. VAT per year for .CH domains, as well as an increase of €2 excl. VAT per year for .LI domains in all price rates.
This increase takes effect immediately.
We will be monitoring the exchange rate over the next few weeks, and if it turns out that the currency returns to a more "normal" value, we will adapt our price accordingly.
Additionally, please note that for the first quarter of the year, we are going to be working on the integration of our catalogue into Swiss Francs, so that our Swiss customers are not penalized.
Finally, we want to remind you that simultaneously with this financial issue, the registry, SWITCH, will be totally stopping its activity as a registrar and releasing all the .CH and .LI domains that they administer. Several months ago we started a .CH and .LI transfer campaign to Gandi, accompanied by a promotion. This is still vaid, though updated of course with regards to the current news mentioned above.
The two new Belgian gTLDs have entered the GoLive phase. Beginning January 20 at 1:00 AM PST, domains that have been pre-registered under these extensions during the Sunrise and Landrush phases have been submitted to the Registry, and all new registrations are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The list is below, accompanied by the corresponding GoLive prices of a one-year registration, all at A rates:
Have you been saving up for a .country domain name, but you're only 25% of the way there?
Well, today's your day, because starting right now you can register a new .country for one year for just $9.59--a 75% discount off of the normal price of $38.34!
Four more new gTLDs will enter the Sunrise phase on Tuesday, December 30, at 8 a.m. PST (15:00 UTC), where they will remain until the Sunrise phase ends on February 28, 2015.
The Landrush phase will last from March 8 to 11, 2015, followed by the GoLive phase beginning on March 11, 2015.
The list is below, accompanied by the corresponding Sunrise, Landrush and GoLive prices of a one-year registration, all at A rates:
Remember, the Sunrise phase is for TMCH-registered trademark holders. Contact our corporate support team if you have a TMCH-registered trademark (or would like help registering your existing trademark at TMCH) in order to register one of these new gTLDs during Sunrise. If you are not among the trademarked, you can still pre-register for the Landrush or GoLive phases. We'll submit your order at the earliest possible moment – as soon as your chosen phase begins – for the best chance of success.
The year 2015 is coming and it's bringing a slew of changes with it. One of those changes affects the way VAT tax is applied on "electronic services" (such as a domain name) purchased by European residents.
Simply put: people living within the European Union must pay for these electronic services (i.e. "nonmaterial goods", more info on this is linked to further down on the page) no longer with the TVA of the country where the merchant is located (practically speaking, from where the services were purchased), but rather, the VAT of the country of residence (country where the service was consumed). The territorial rules pertaining to purchases made by European organization which have an intra community VAT number (mainly companies) remain unchanged.
Since Gandi sells electronic services, all of our products (except t-shirts) will be affected by this change.
To give you a concrete example, take the VAT rates of a few EU countries:
France: 20%
Spain: 16%
Denmark: 25%
If a French customer buys a domain that costs €10 from a company located in Spain, he or she will pay €12 (€10 + 20% French VAT). A Danish customer buying the same domain from the same Spanish company would pay €12.50 (€10 + 25% Danish VAT). And finally, a Spanish customer would pay €11.60 (€10 + 16% Spanish VAT).
Note that this measure only affects so-called "Telecommunications, broadcasting & other online services", as defined by the VAT Directive. Therefore, actual physical goods sold via "distance selling" (clothing, etc) over the Internet are not affected by this change.
Note also that the sale of electronic services to persons who reside in a non-European Union country will not be subject to European VAT (export), even if these countries are geographically European (ex. Switzerland).
For more information on the different VAT rates in Europe, see this PDF or this website.
Some examples of electronic services concerned by this are:
Providing and hosting of websites, remote maintenance of programs and hardware,
Providing of software and their updates,
Providing of images, information and texts, and databases,
Providing of music, films, videogames and online gambling, as well as political, cultural, artistic, sports, scientific, or entertainment programs,
The Gandi v5 platform has been deployed now for about 2 years. Many features have been added to it and we continue to update and improve it regularly.
We are planning to definitively close the v4 customer web interface. Please migrate your account by logging in to https://www.gandi.net/ to start the migration process.
