ICANN Requirements for Expired Domain Names

During a recent webinar, ICANN went through the new Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”) for registrars – here’s the summary and what you need to know. Please make sure that you read the original Expired Registration Recovery Consensus Policy if you need any more details. Registrars have to comply with the new policy by August 31st, 2013. This policy was developed from the Generic Name Supporting Organization (GNSO)’s Post Expiration Domain Name Recovery (PEDNR) recommendations. ICANN’s Board of Directors adopted the policy and ran it through a public comment period.

Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”)

  • Registrars can delete domain names any time after they expire
  • The existing DNS has to be “disrupted” for 8 days before deletion, meaning the domain name has to either be put on “Registrar Hold” effectively removing it from the zonefile or changing DNS to point to a registrar supplied site. If a page is displayed, it must include instructions for renewing the domain name.
  • The registrant must be able to renew the domain name any time before deletion.
  • If the domain is renewed the registrar must restore DNS “as soon as commercially possible”.
  • The registry automatically renews the domain one the day of expiry and charges the registrar’s prepaid account
  • If the domain transfers out or is deleted within 45 days of the expiry/autorenewal, the prepaid funds will be returned to the registar’s account
  • After the domain name is deleted (unless a delete happens within the first 5 days after registration), the domain (for all gTLDs other than sponsored gTLDs) will enter the “Redemption Grace Period” (RGP), which lasts 30 days. During this time the domain may still be restored by the registrar at a higher cost. This must be offered by registrars.
  • The domain name will then go into “Pending Delete” status and will be deleted after five days
  • Any fees for renewals, post expiration renewals and redemptions must be displayed/be available to the registrant at the time of registration, for example as part of the registration agreement.
  • The registrar’s published renewal policy also must reveal how renewal reminders will be sent.
  • ICANN will publish information on this process on their website, registrars will have to link to it.
  • Resellers will have to display all of this information as well.

Messaging Requirements

  • Notify registered domain holder of the expiry of their names at least two times
  • The notices may be combined for domains expiring at the same time.
  • Approximately one month and one week before expiration.
  • Sent in language of the registration agreement
  • Must be sent to the “Registrant at Expiration” (RAE), meaning the holder of the name at expiration.
  • If the name is not renewed until five days after expiry, another “Final Renewal Reminder” must be sent explaining how to renew the domain
  • Registrars that send more or other notices may continue to do so
  • No prescribed template
  • Registrants cannot opt out of notices.
  • All messages sent to the registered name holder must be available for audit.

Do not rely on the FTP Registry Transfer Report

Registrars that want to stay up to date on outgoing transfers and would like to give their registrars a timely chance to cancel stop pending transfer requests should not rely on the daily FTP reports provided by the Registry.

There are three methods available for obtaining information about the status of incoming & outgoing transfers:

  1. Transfer Reports from the registry FTP-Server
  2. EPP polling messages
  3. EPP Transfer Status Queries
  4. Transfer email messages

Most older registrar systems will rely solely on the FTP reports, which are not always published by the registry on times and have been delayed by several hours over the past years on several occasions. Considering that a transfer often takes five business days to complete, the user experience is already a bad one, so any additional delay should be avoided. Imagine an anxious registrant who is in the process of transferring their domain receiving an empty response from your whois server, since your system has not yet noticed that the transfer actually completed.

Experiences with most of the major registries have shown that it may not be a sound decision in a registrar implementation to rely on one only just one of the methods above. For .COM and .NET domains the Email Notifications are the most immediate and reliable method of receiving information about transfers. We recommend to poll these messages at least once an hour. Since email cannot be considered reliable today, we also recommend using the FTP report on top of the email notifications, which should be checked at least once daily. For full EPP registries, the polling notifications are the most direct information available.

Becoming an ICANN accredited Registrar

Due to a recent question on DNForum by DNGod (“Can buy ICANN-accredited registrar“), I decided to finally update and publish this post, which had been sitting around as a draft for a while. Thank you for the inspiration 🙂

Apply versus Buy

If your organization has decided to become an accredited registrar, there are two choices in order to become operation. You can either apply for a new accreditation, purchase a company that owns an existing registrar or lease an existing registrar. Either way has it’s advantages and disadvantages.

While we will also be looking at the cost of the actual transaction, please keep in mind that this article does not consider the actual cost of running a registrar, which is the same, no matter if you buy an existing accredited registrar or apply for a new accreditation.

Buying an existing Registrar

In reality in most cases you will actually not just be buying a registrar accreditation, but rather a company that is ICANN accredited. The price point is up to $30,000 USD for an offshore registrar, but we’ve seen prices under $10,000 USD recently. In most cases you will be operational faster than when going through a new registrar accreditation, but there are a number of other factors to consider. Most likely the registrar you will be buying is at least accredited for the COM & NET registries.

One time Cost:

  • $10,000 to $30,000 USD
  • plus reimbursement of any deposits/fees (registry credits)
  • Lawyer Fees
  • Possible Consultant Fees (about $2,500-$5,000 USD)

Pros:

  • If you are planning to have a retail presence, you may be starting out with some existing clients.
  • You don’t have to incorporate a new entity.

Cons:

  • Existing contracts may mean a delay before the registrar is yours and yours alone, for example if the registrar was used for drop-catching domains, there may be a 3 month notice needed in order to allow the drop catching registrar to attempt to move out their customers.
  • Depending on the responsiveness of the seller the sale may slow down as well.
  • Many registrars that are for sale are only set up to register a limited set of TLDs, so adding additional TLDs may be as time consuming as it is for a new accreditation.
  • Depending on where the company is registered you may have to change the jurisdiction of the company.
  • The registries may ask you to re certify and re-file paperwork such as credit applications once they are notified about the ownership change.
  • ICANN usually asks registrars with an ownership change to re-verify that the new owners meet all the requirements of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).
  • You may have to continue to use the registrar system that the registrar has been using before, depending on your needs and existing contracts.

Recommendations:

  • Enlist a lawyer’s help to review the purchase contract.
  • Make sure the seller has provided you with all of the credentials & access for ICANN & the registries.
  • Ensure you are aware of any existing obligations contracts of the registrar, as well as any potential earnings.
  • Make sure that the registrar is in good standing with ICANN and all the registries and has been fulfilling all their requirements according to the RAA. Examples to watch out for here is for example the compliance with Registrar Data Escrow program.

Applying for a new registrar accreditation

One time Cost:

  • ICANN Application fee ($3,500 USD)
  • Possible Consultant Fees (usually from $6,000 to $10,000 USD)

It is important to note that there may

Considerations:

  • Proof of $70,000.00 USD working capital required (letter from bank etc.)
  • Commercial General Liability Insurance coverage of at least $500,000 (can be purchased from $500 USD & up)

Pros:

  • No existing registrants to worry about.
  • Starting from a clean slate, you don’t have to worry about the registrar’s history

Cons:

  • Accreditation process can be time consuming.
  • Time frame for the completion of the accreditation can be unpredictable, but can be as fast as under one month.

Recommendations:

  • Try to partner with a company that has gone through the process before and already has personal contacts at the registries and registrars.
  • Select your technology partner early in the process in order to ensure speedy completion of the registry signups and tests.

Leasing an existing Registrar

While this used to be a third option through an offering such as MyRebel.com (which appears to have been discontinued), we’re not aware of any current offerings allowing you to lease an existing registrar, but in order to be complete, I’ll still list our recommendations.

Cost:

  • Leasing a registrar does have a low initial setup fee.
  • The monthly cost, which includes access to a simple hosted registrar management interface, is about $1,500 USD per month.

Pros:

  • You can get started quickly without having to wait to change ownership on an existing registrar or needing to complete paperwork.
  • You have full access to the registry interfaces.
  • Any transaction is directly sent the registry, so you see the unfiltered registry response without any delay.
  • Since the service includes a hosted solution the service provider takes care of issues such as RDE, WDRP compliance and other code updates.

Cons:

  • The registrar is not owned by you.
  • You depend on the provider’s technical staff to provide you with access to your registrar.
  • You do not have control as to where the leased registrar is incorporated.

Conclusions and recommendations

If you are not in a huge rush to start using your ICANN accredited registrar, I would always recommend applying for a new accreditation rather than purchasing an existing registrar.

Disclaimer: DomainCocoon provides ICANN Accreditation Consulting, Frank Michlick is the founder of the company.