On June 27th 2013 ICANN released the latest version of its Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). The RAA according to ICANN is supposed to enhance and solidify the competition between gTLD ( generic top level domain) 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.

There are benefits of a registrar being compliant with ICANN’s new RAA requirements. The main benefit will be access to registration for the 1000+ new gTLD domain names. In the coming months Netregistry will start looking at the available new gTLD domain names and working with our customers to find and offer the most appropriate names through of customer portals.

The biggest change for gTLD domain owners is the Whois 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 information must be validated.  There are two parts to this validation process, firstly the Whois 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.

Netregistry will be bringing in these validation processes in the coming weeks and 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 quiet straight forward and will ensure that information the registered name holders are listing against their gTLD domains will be accurate.

Netregistry’s process being brought in will required 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 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 our 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 once year 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.

The changes being brought in have a high customer impact and we are working with ICANN as well the other registrars to refine this process because as it stands now these forced changes are causing large amounts of disruption for domain owners worldwide.

In the coming months make sure you keep in contact with our sales team as we will be announcing the availability of the new gTLD domain names. These names will give our customers access to exciting new domain extensions that have changed the stagnant state of the gTLD name space.