ICANN Receives Right to Terminate RegisterFly's Accreditation As Soon As Possible

May 2, 2007; 06:01 AM
Under a preliminary injunction issued on April 26, 2007 by US Federal Court Judge, Manuel J. Real, ICANN now has the right to terminate RegisterFly’s accreditation as soon as possible. The provision to ICANN of current and accurate data for all of RegisterFly’s domain names has also been ordered by the Court as RegisterFly failed to meet the conditions of a temporary restraining order (TRO) which the Court issued on April 16, 2007.

Following the injunction, ICANN is immediately inviting statements of interest from accredited registrars starting Monday, 30 April 2007, to act as a transfer provider, so domain name registrants can gain full access to their domains. The registrar handling the transfers will temporarily hold the names and help registrants transfer to any ICANN accredited registrar of their choice.

“Registrants are our first concern. ICANN is following a very determined approach to returning access to domain name registrants impacted by the collapse of RegisterFly,” said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN President and CEO.

“ICANN knows that many registrants are anxious for a transfer to occur. We are committed to making sure this process is put in place as quickly as possible,” Dr. Twomey added. “While we understand that this process may be frustrating for some RegisterFly customers, it is the first time that ICANN has had to intercede in such a way and these steps are being taken to ensure that the system introduced works as effectively as possible” he said.

In order to become the transfer provider, registrars must be:

• ICANN accredited for at least two years;
• in compliance with the Registrar Accreditation Agreement;
• able to demonstrate that it possesses the technical and financial qualifications necessary to operate a registrar with the number of registrations that the applicant will need to manage if it is selected as the services provider.

The draft Terminated Registrar Procedure is available online at http://www.icann.org/announcements/terminated-registrar-procedure-27apr07.htm.

The Court decision also requires RegisterFly to immediately post a notice on its web site as follows:

NOTICE TO CONSUMERS: THE INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS, THE NOT-FOR-PROFIT ENTITY THAT ADMINISTERS THE INTERNET’S DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM, HAS ISSUED A NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF THIS COMPANY’S ACCREDITATION TO SERVE AS AN INTERNET DOMAIN REGISTRAR. PLEASE SEE www.icann.org FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

Once ICANN finalizes RegisterFly’s termination, the website notice must be revised to reflect the actual termination of RegisterFly’s accreditation.