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Terminated Registrar Procedure
27 April 2007
The purpose of this procedure is to enable registrants to transfer their names from a terminated registrar to any registrar in good standing. Broadly, a services provider (who may be a registrar) will be appointed as a temporary organization to hold the registrations and facilitate the transfers of all the names to accredited registrars chosen by registrants on a case-by-case basis. The service provider scope will be strictly limited to this role.
ICANN will make a tender to secure a provider of transfer services (a Failed Registrar Transfer Provider, or “Provider”) who will be compensated to perform the following duties only:
- Provide a WHOIS service for the domain name affected
- Provide a customer interface (with no branding identification) to facilitate transfers from the terminated registrar to any registrar in good standing
- Update Whois contact information at the authenticated request of registrants - provide an appropriate paperwork authentication process in cases where the email address of other contact information is no longer correct
- Send auth-codes to any affected registrant requesting them: registrant must consent to transfer via email sent to administrative contact
- Unlock domain names for registrants requesting auth-codes
- Send an email to registrants who have not transferred the name by the time of expiration stating that the name has expired and that the name must transferred or it will be deleted at the close of auto-renew, redemption grace and pending delete periods
- Provide phone support as required for authentication problems only (i.e. no discussion of registrar choice)
- Maintain the service until the names are transferred or are deleted
- Provide a domain restore service to facilitate the redemption of names by passing the any Redemption Grace Period to the registry at registry cost.
- No fees will be charged by the service provider except as provided in the implementation notes below.
To facilitate the process, gTLD registries having names from the registrar in interest shall:
- Rewrite the registrar of record to the Provider
- Issue credentials and passwords to the Provider
- Write auth codes to the registry at the direction of the Provider
- Provide “transfer out” reports for the Provider
ICANN will compose an email to be sent by the Provider to every registrant (admin contact) stating:
- Terminated registrar’s accreditation has been terminated
- Notice that domain names registered by the terminated registrar, have been temporarily transferred to the Failed Registrar Transfer Provider to facilitate transfer of the name to another registrar,
- Asking registrants too choose a registrar from the list of ICANN accredited registrars at http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html.
- Asking registrants to transfer domain names using the tool to obtain auth-code on the Provider’s site (link to be provided).
Application notes:
- Given the fact based contingencies of each potential termination: tenders can be extended to selected registrars or other potential Providers at ICANN discretion. Tenders need not be open to any who wish to bid, the tender need not be announced publicly. Executive ICANN staff will make tender decisions according to an internal procedure taking into account the interests of registrants.
- ICANN will ensure a separate accreditation credential is in place or issued for the purpose of keeping this work separate from other registrar work and to ensure the temporal nature of this assignment.
- Provider’s compensation: compensation may be a lump sum payment by ICANN to the Provider at the outset; or a transaction fee for each transfer. Compensation is intended to offset direct costs of the Provider. Potential Providers in response to the tender will suggest compensation. The cash flow for transaction fee is: gaining registrar to pay ICANN usual ICANN fee; ICANN to pay Provider.
- Selection among qualified applicants will be made in the best interests of registrants according to an internal procedure.
- Provider shall not “park” or otherwise use registered names to derive other revenue.