Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2018-2823
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 20:21:56+00:00

Document:
The Complainant is Carrefour, of Boulogne-Billancourt, France, represented by Dreyfus & associés, France.
The Respondent is Cooperative Union Sweet of Valencia, Spain.
The disputed domain name <carrefour-services.com> is registered with FastDomain, Inc. (the “Registrar”).
The Complaint was filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (the “Center”) on December 11, 2018. On December 11, 2018, the Center transmitted by email to the Registrar a request for registrar verification in connection with the disputed domain name. On December 11, 2018, the Registrar transmitted by email to the Center its verification response disclosing registrant and contact information for the disputed domain name which differed from the named Respondent and contact information in the Complaint. The Center sent an email communication to the Complainant on December 12, 2018 providing the registrant and contact information disclosed by the Registrar, and inviting the Complainant to submit an amendment to the Complaint. The Complainant filed an amended Complaint on December 14, 2018.
In accordance with the Rules, paragraphs 2 and 4, the Center formally notified the Respondent of the Complaint, and the proceedings commenced on December 17, 2018. In accordance with the Rules, paragraph 5, the due date for Response was January 6, 2019. The Respondent did not submit any response. Accordingly, the Center notified the Respondent’s default on January 7, 2019.
The Center appointed Reynaldo Urtiaga Escobar as the sole panelist in this matter on January 10, 2019. The Panel finds that it was properly constituted. The Panel has submitted the Statement of Acceptance and Declaration of Impartiality and Independence, as required by the Center to ensure compliance with the Rules, paragraph 7.
The proceeding is conducted in English, this being the language of the registration agreement for the disputed domain name, as confirmed by the Registrar.
The Complainant, founded in France in 1958, is an international supermarket chain of 12,300 stores and e-commerce sites in more than 30 countries spanning Europe, Latin America and Asia.
International trademark No. 1010661, for CARREFOUR, registered on April 16, 2009, designating inter alia, Japan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ghana, and the Syrian Arab Republic and covering services in class 35.
The disputed domain name was registered on October 10, 2018, and has since resolved to a website under construction. Irrespective of the inactivity, a lookup search of <carrefour-services.com> on MXToolbox.com shows that the disputed domain name is associated with an email server under the hostname mail.carrefour-services.com at the IP address 67.222.39.74.
xv) A further indication of the Respondent’s bad faith use of the disputed domain name is the fact that email servers have been configured on the disputed domain name, and so there is a risk that the Respondent is using, or intending to use, the disputed domain name to send fraudulent emails misrepresenting itself as the Complainant.
The Respondent did not submit a Response to the Complaint. The Panel notes that, on January 7, 2019, that is one day after the due date for the Response, a third party sent an email to the Center distancing itself from the administrative proceeding, without providing any material facts or arguments in response to the Complaint.
The Complainant named Domain Privacy Service Fbo Registrant, The Endurance International Group, Inc. as the Respondent in the Complaint. Following a response from the Registrar to the Center’s request for Registrar verification, the Complainant added Cooperative Union Sweet as co-respondent in the amended Complaint.
Because the Registrar confirmed that Cooperative Union Sweet was the sole registrant for the disputed domain name, the Panel holds that said entity alone is the proper Respondent in the instant UDRP proceeding. This holding is without prejudice to any other claims or proceedings, if any, that may be available to the Complainant against the entity or entities initially named in the Complaint.
As explained in section 1.7 of the WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, Third Edition (“WIPO Overview 3.0”), the test for confusing similarity under the UDRP involves a side-by-side comparison of the disputed domain name and the textual components of the relevant trademark(s).
The Complainant holds EUTM registrations, and an international trademark registration, for CARREFOUR, all of which predate registration of the disputed domain name for several years.
The disputed domain name consists of the terms “carrefour” and “services”, separated by a hyphen.
To the Panel’s eye, the Complainant’s well-known CARREFOUR mark is immediately recognizable within the disputed domain name, which suffices to find confusing similarity within the meaning of the Policy. See section 1.8 of the WIPO Overview 3.0 “[w]here the relevant trademark is recognizable within the disputed domain name, the addition of generic or descriptive terms do not prevent a finding of confusing similarity under the first element”.
Here, the joinder of the generic term “services” with the disputed domain name increases the likelihood of confusion by association with the CARREFOUR mark as the Complainant operates in the services industry in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. See ACCOR, Société Anonyme à Directoire et Conseil de surveillance v. Tigertail Partners, WIPO Case No. D2002-0625 (“confusion is only heightened when the generic word added by respondent is descriptive of the complainant’s goods or services marketed in relation to the trademark”).
For the foregoing reasons, the Panel holds that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to the Complainant’s CARREFOUR European and international marks.
The Complainant has therefore satisfied its burden of proof for this element of the Policy.
The Respondent has not been authorized by the Complainant to use the CARREFOUR marks in connection with the disputed domain name or otherwise. There is no evidence in the file to indicate that the Respondent is commonly known by the disputed domain name.
The Panel notes that the Complainant’s marks are well-known in Spain, where the Respondent is located. See Carrefour S.A., Viajes Carrefour S.L. v. Xavier Buck, WIPO Case No. DES2009-0051 (the complainant has produced abundant evidence of the notoriety of its trademarks in the Spanish market 1 ).
Furthermore, by looking at the overall circumstances of the case, namely the notoriety of the Complainant’s marks, the Respondent’s failure to appear in this proceeding, the absence of an active website showing a bona fide use of the disputed domain name, and ultimately, the possibility that the Respondent use the disputed domain name in email communications to impersonate the Complainant and defraud consumers, negate, in the Panel’s view, rights and legitimate interests within the purview of the Policy.
In sum, the Panel finds that the Respondent does not have rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name.
Pursuant to Policy, paragraph 4(a)(iii), in order to be granted relief, the Complainant must show that the disputed domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith.
Several UDRP panels have considered the Complainant’s CARREFOUR mark to be either famous or well-known internationally. See for instance Carrefour v. Tony Mancini, USDIET Whoisguard, Inc., WIPO Case No. D2015-0962; Carrefour v. VistaPrint Technologies Ltd., WIPO Case No. D2015-0769; Carrefour v. Park KyeongSook, WIPO Case No. D2014-1425; and Carrefour S.A. v. Patrick Demestre, WIPO Case No. D2011-2248.
It follows that the Respondent could not have been unaware of the fame or notoriety of the CARREFOUR mark when it registered the disputed domain name, which suggests opportunistic bad faith on the part of the Respondent. See Carrefour v. Lamienne Ambada, Help.com, WIPO Case No. D2018-0637 (considering that the complainant’s CARREFOUR trademark is famous or at least well-known, the panel concludes that the respondent must have been aware of the complainant’s trademark and that it registered the disputed domain name in opportunistic bad faith).
Having found that the disputed domain name is deemed to have been registered in bad faith, the Panel considers that the use of the disputed domain name in connection with an active email server could be considered further evidence of bad faith, as the most likely intention of the Respondent, considering the CARREFOUR mark’s notoriety, would be to defraud consumers with emails purporting to originate from the Complainant.
In any case, from the totality of the circumstances, the Panel finds that the Respondent’s passive holding of the disputed domain name does not avoid a finding of bad faith registration and use as the degree of distinctiveness of the Complainant’s mark and the implausibility of any good faith use to which the disputed domain name may be put convinces the Panel that the Respondent is in bad faith. See WIPO Overview 3.0, Section 3.3.
All in all, the Panel is persuaded that the disputed domain name was registered and has been used in bad faith within the realm of the Policy.
Thereby, the Complainant has discharged its burden in relation to paragraph 4(a)(iii) of the Policy.
For the foregoing reasons, in accordance with paragraphs 4(i) of the Policy and 15 of the Rules, the Panel orders that the disputed domain name <carrefour-services.com> be transferred to the Complainant.

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