DomainTools Blog

Some Registrars have been playing games and blocking transfers since the beginning of time. The rules for blocking transfers have been morphing continually over the years - ICANN keeps improving the rules and things continue to get better for the end-users. In the latest round of policy updates yesterday, ICANN announced it would be against the rules to block a transfer on a domain when the whois record changes.

That means a registrar cannot block a domain transfer based solely on a name change in the registrant field. ICANN also prohibited registrars from forcing a user to agree to a contract that bypasses the ICANN rules before the user can make changse to their whois record. The only blocking a registrar can do on a domain is within the FIRST 60 days after its initial registration or for a period of 60 days after an incoming transfer.

For quite some time now, certain registrars have blocked transfers on domains if the registrant changed their name on the whois record. Technically, this practice was never allowed by ICANN, but some registrars would bypass those rules by making a separate contract with the Registrant. There was no way to opt-out of that contract - if the customer wanted to update their record, they were bound to that registrar for another 60 days. Basically, Step 1 was agreeing to the involuntary contract and Step 2 was making a change to your record. This new rule says this sort of involuntary contract is not grounds for blocking a transfer, partially because registrants are mandated to keep their whois records up to date or the domain can be deleted.

Being forced to enter into an electronic contract in order to preform operations on your domain name doesn’t sit well with many consumers. It like being handcuffed to your registrar. Some have argued this practice is neccesary for security but that argument doesn’t make sense. True security has nothing to do with the Registrant Field and more to do with the Registrant’s email address and passwords to their registrar account.

I am very happy about this lastest policy advisory. ICANN has been trying to get all the Registrars to play by the same rules for a while but the lawyers at some Registrars seem to be smarter than the lawyers at ICANN. This advisory cuts through the involuntary contracts and now allows consumers the right to more freely move around. Congratulations ICANN!