Which characters are allowed in a .se or .nu address? And which domain names are not possible to register? Here we have collected the terms and conditions that are good to know when you are registering a domain.
Terms and Conditions
The registration terms are the agreement that applies to all domain name holders. Please find the terms and conditions below which are valid from June 3, 2024.
The registration of .se and .nu domains is done through any of The Swedish Internet Foundation’s resellers, so called registrars. Regardless of which registrar you choose, The Swedish Internet Foundation’s terms and conditions apply. There terms are included in all registrar agreements. In addition, each registrar has his or her own terms.
- Anyone can register a .se or .nu domain provided it is available and does not appear on The Swedish Internet Foundation’s block list (see below). The registration of the domain name occurs immediately.
- The chosen name cannot conflict with the law or infringe on the rights of others, such as a trademark.
- The holder must provide a working email address and full contact details.
- A .se or .nu domain may contain at least one and at most 63 characters.
Accepted characters
A .se domain may contain of the letters a-z, numbers 0-9, hyphens, and all the letters required to write in Swedish and the Swedish official minority languages (Finnish, Meänkieli (Tornedal Finnish), Sami, Romani and Yiddish). It may also contain the letters required for writing in Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Islandic. This means that it is possible to use letters such as å, ä, ö, ü and é in a .se domain. A complete list of all the characters currently available to use in a .se domain can be found in the table below.
A .nu domain may contain of the letters a-z, numbers 0-9, hyphens, and the letters required to write in Swedish, the Nordic languages and other Western European languages. This means that it is possible to register a .nu domain name which contains of letters such as å, ä, ö, ü and é. A complete list of the characters currently available to use in a .nu domain can be found in the table below.
It is IDN that makes it possible to register .se and .nu domains which contains of other characters than a-z, 0-9 and hyphens. IDN stands for Internationalized Domain Names.
Technical restrictions
Some technical restrictions exist for the characters listed in the character table above. The domain must comply with the technical restrictions to be registered.
For .se domain names the following technical restrictions apply
- A domain name cannot have a hyphen in both position three and four.
- A domain name cannot begin with a hyphen.
- A domain name cannot have a hyphen directly before “.se”.
- A domain name cannot contain of both Hebrew and Latin (Roman) letters, this applies to the letters before “.se”.
- A domain name that contains of Hebrew letters cannot begin with a number.
- A domain name that contains of Hebrew letters cannot have a number directly before “.se”.
For .nu-domain names the following technical restrictions apply
- A domain name cannot have a hyphen in both position three and four.
- A domain name cannot begin with a hyphen.
- A domain name cannot have a hyphen directly before “.nu”.
- A domain name cannot be registered if it contains of a German sharp s, the sharp s has to be rewritten to “ss” at the registration.
Blocked and reserved domain names
There are categories of domain names that are blocked or reserved by The Swedish Internet Foundation:
- Domain names that consists of number combinations in the format xxxxxx-xxxx and xxxxxxxx-xxxx. These domain names are blocked for registration since they are or may be a personal identity number. The block has been introduced in order to protect people’s personal integrity.
- Domain names that contains of two letters followed by two hyphens. The syntax containing two letters followed by two hyphens is reserved for IDN and is blocked in accordance with current standards to avoid common domain names being perceived as IDN domain names.
- Some domains are reserved as example and test domains, these are therefore not possible to register. You can find these reserved domain names in the charter below.
- Designations according to the law (2014:812) about protection for certain characteristics in international humanitarian law and the law (1970:498) about protection of weapons and certain other official designations with the associated regulation (2019:167) cannot be freely used. Domain names that consist of the protected designations are therefore blocked for registration.
The blocked domain names are reserved for the organization that holds the right to the designation according to the law or regulation. The organization that holds the right to the designation can register the domain name by proving its right to the name, unless otherwise stated in the relevant legislation. If someone other than the holder requests the cancellation of the block, the applicant must be able to prove that he or she has the approval of the organization concerned. This applies if something else is not stated in the current legislation.
- Some main domains, such as county letters, are blocked for new registrations (this applies only for .se domains). Already registered domain names under a main domain continue to be registered as long as they are renewed.
You can get JSON-data or download text files here with all blocked and reserved domains:
- Blocked and reserved domain names .se (JSON)
- Blocked and reserved domain names .se (text file)
- Blocked and reserved domain names .nu (JSON)
- Blocked and reserved domain names .nu (text file)
Data files are created one time per day. Certain domain names are completely blocked for registration while others are reserved for eligible applicants.
Handling of personal data
For domain name holders, there is information about how we handle personal data that you leave in connection with the registration of domain names in The Swedish Internet Foundation’s Privacy Policy for domain name registry.
