Registrants' Rights and Responsibilities

Domain Name Registrants' Rights

  1. Your domain name registration and any privacy/proxy services you may use in conjunction with it must be subject to a Registration Agreement with an ICANN Accredited Registrar.
    • You are entitled to review this Registration Agreement at any time, and download a copy for your records.
  2. You are entitled to accurate and accessible information about:
    • The identity of your ICANN Accredited Registrar;
    • The identity of any proxy or privacy service provider affiliated with your Registrar;
    • Your Registrar's terms and conditions, including pricing information, applicable to domain name registrations;
    • The terms and conditions, including pricing information, applicable to any privacy services offered by your Registrar;
    • The customer support services offered by your Registrar and the privacy services provider, and how to access them;
    • How to raise concerns and resolve disputes with your Registrar and any privacy services offered by them; and
    • Instructions that explain your Registrar's processes for registering, managing, transferring, renewing, and restoring your domain name registrations, including through any proxy or privacy services made available by your Registrar.
  3. You shall not be subject to false advertising or deceptive practices by your Registrar or though any proxy or privacy services made available by your Registrar. This includes deceptive notices, hidden fees, and any practices that are illegal under the consumer protection law of your residence.

Domain Name Registrants' Responsibilities:

  1. You must comply with the terms and conditions posted by your Registrar, including applicable policies from your Registrar, the Registry and ICANN.
  2. You must review your Registrar's current Registration Agreement, along with any updates.
  3. You will assume sole responsibility for the registration and use of your domain name.
  4. You must provide accurate information for publication in directories such as WHOIS, and promptly update this to reflect any changes.
  5. You must respond to inquiries from your Registrar within fifteen (15) days, and keep your Registrar account data current. If you choose to have your domain name registration renew automatically, you must also keep your payment information current.

Educational Material

For more information please read the ICANN Educational Material( ICANN Educational Material link ).


2013 ICANN RAA impacts

On June 27th 2013 ICANN( ICANN link ) released the latest version of its Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA)( RAA link ) . The RAA according to ICANN is supposed to enhance and solidify the competition between gTLD registrars while clarifying the responsibilities of the registrar and the rights of the registrants.

The 2013 RAA has brought in a long list of mandated changes that will affect both the registrar and registrant of currently available gTLD domains and the new gTLD names being released.

The biggest change for gTLD domain owners is the Whois( Whois link ) information validation process. ICANN has brought in a requirement that when a gTLD domain is registered, transferred or the contact information is updated the publicly available Whois( Whois link ) information must be validated.

There are two parts to this validation process, firstly the Whois( Whois link ) contact information will be validated by email which is sent to the registered name holder and the second part will be the street address validation. Registrants will see the following changes when registering, transferring or updating a gTLD domain;

  1. When a gTLD domain is registered, transferred or the contact information is updated the registered name holder will be required to click on an approval link sent to their email address listed.
  2. At the time of registration, transfer or contact information update the entered address will be validated by an automated checking process*

The validation process has been defined by ICANN and all registrars will be audited yearly to ensure compliance. The validation process is quite straight forward and will ensure that information the registered name holders are listing against their gTLD domains will be accurate.

The process requires registered name holders to approve an email sent to the email address listed in their registration, transfer or update. The owner will have 15 days to complete this process and if not approved the domain will be suspended. The suspension of the domain can be reversed by approving the email sent.

The following outlines the time line for the approval process; the registered name holder can approve the request at any time during the 15 day period;

  1. On registration, transfer or contact update the registered name holder is sent an email to the listed email address.
  2. 5 days later the first reminder email is sent to the email address requested
  3. 10 days after the initial request the second reminder is sent
  4. On day 15 the registered name holder is sent a warning of the pending suspension
  5. At the end of the 15 day cycle the domain is put into a “Client Hold” status, which stops the domain DNS( Wikipedia link ) resolving.

Once a domain is suspended the registered name holder will have the ability to un-suspend the domain by requesting the approval email be resent. This can be achieved by clicking the “resend approval” link in the suspension email or by contact our support team. Some important facts customers must be aware of;

  • Contact information supplied for gTLD domain registration, transfer or contact update must be valid and accurate
  • No domain will be deleted due to non-approval*
  • Domains will continue to resolve during the 15 day validation period
  • The annual Whois Data Reminder policy emails will still be sent. The delivery of these emails will be monitored and if returned domains will be required to go through the validation process.
  • If the registered name holder email address is not valid we will be sending approval to the account holder email address.