ICANN (the international agency that handles regulations for domains) approved a new registrar accreditation agreement in June 2013 that has several changes, however, a couple of them are of importance as it can cause service interruptions.
Effective January 1, 2014:
- Changes to the WHOIS information or email address fields of an existing domain will require validation to occur via an email and web site affirmation. The domain will be suspended after 15 days if no action is taken.
- New registrations will require the same validation steps and if not completed, the domain will be suspended.
- If the annual Whois Data Reminder Policy (WDRP) notice, a 30 day expiration notice, or a 5 day expiration notices bounce back, the same validation steps will be taken and domains will be suspended if validation is not completed within 15 days.
Since the above changes can impact your domain's services, it is important to keep your domain's contact information up to date – especially the email address. Please see our knowledgebase article on how to update the WHOIS information.
Furthermore, please see the Registrants' Benefits and Responsibilities at: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/registrant-rights/benefits and Registrant Education Materials at http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/registrant-rights/educational .
As always, if you have any questions about the above changes please contact us.
Thursday, November 14, 2013