Domain Disputes and Registry Rules

We’re not a registrar, so we have no registration agreement of our own. When a domain is pushed into your account at an accredited registrar, you sign up to that registrar’s agreement and, through it, to the registry’s rules. On anything about the registration itself, those rules come before our Terms. Here is the plain version; the registry documents are the ones that count.

The basics are the same everywhere. A domain is a right to use a name for a fixed term, not a thing you own, and it ends if you don’t renew. Registries and registrars can suspend, cancel or transfer a name to obey a court or a dispute decision, to fix their own mistake, or because their rules were broken. Making sure your use of a name doesn’t tread on someone else’s rights is your job, not theirs.

.eu – EURid

Only people living in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, organisations based there, or EU citizens anywhere in the world can hold a .eu domain. UK residents and UK companies without an EEA base aren’t eligible, and EURid can revoke a domain if the holder turns out not to qualify. The rules are in the EURid Registration Policy and Terms.

Disputes go to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure run by the Czech Arbitration Court. To win, a complainant has to show the domain is identical or confusingly similar to a name protected under EU or national law, and either that the holder has no right or legitimate interest in it, or that it was registered or used in bad faith. The panel can revoke the domain or transfer it to an eligible complainant.

.com – ICANN and Verisign

Your registrar’s agreement brings in ICANN’s rules: the UDRP, the Transfer Policy and the requirement to keep your contact details accurate (you have 15 days to answer an accuracy check). ICANN publishes a plain statement of your rights and responsibilities as a registrant. A domain can’t move to another registrar for 60 days after it’s registered or changes hands. If it expires there’s a short grace period, then a “redemption” period where getting it back costs a lot more than a renewal, and then it’s deleted.

Under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, a complainant files with a provider such as WIPO and must prove three things: the domain is identical or confusingly similar to a trade mark they hold; you have no rights or legitimate interest in it; and it was registered and is being used in bad faith. Bad faith includes buying a name mainly to sell it to the trade-mark owner for more than it cost you, or using it to attract visitors by trading on confusion with the mark. A legitimate interest includes genuinely using the name (or preparing to) before the dispute, or being commonly known by it. The panel can only cancel the domain or transfer it; either side can still go to court, and the registrar waits ten business days before acting on a transfer. A faster, cheaper procedure called Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) exists for clear-cut cases.

.uk – Nominet

A .uk registration creates two contracts: one with your registrar, which acts as your agent, and one directly with Nominet under its Terms and Conditions of Domain Name Registration. Nominet may publish your name and, unless you’re a private individual who opts out, your address. You move a .uk between registrars by changing the IPS tag.

Disputes go to Nominet’s Dispute Resolution Service. The complainant must show rights in a name that’s identical or similar to the domain, and that the registration is abusive in your hands. It starts with free mediation; if that fails, the complainant can pay for an independent expert decision, which can transfer, suspend or cancel the domain. There’s an appeal stage.

While a dispute is running

We are not part of any of these procedures. We don’t receive complaints, lock domains or carry out decisions, and we don’t refund a purchase because of a dispute that comes later. Your registrar locks the domain against transfer while the case is open and for 15 business days afterwards. Notices go to the registrant email on record. The commonest way to lose a case is simply not to reply.