Hello folks, as some of you may already know, last week, ICANN published its revamped Registrar Accreditation application (effective immediately). I thought I’d write a quick snapshot post on this development.
The first glance at the new application tells you that this version is much longer, more comprehensive, and the questions more specific. There’s also more due diligence screening, both on technical and operational aspects of the business. It’s clear that these come from the hard lessons that the industry has learnt over the past few years, including Registrar failures and instances of Registrar/reseller non-compliance.
Let me include in brief, some notes on the changes below:
– Proof of Establishment: And I’m not referring to just the company incorporation certificate. Aspiring Registrars would now also need to show that they’re a credible company backed with sufficient experience and expertise.
– UDRP, IRTP, WDRP Compliance, and Registrar Data Escrow (RDE): ICANN expects the applicant to submit an operational plan to show that their Registrar will always be compliant with all policies and guidelines. Also RDE (which has now been around for a while now) is now officially part of the ICANN Accreditation Application too.
– Financial Stability: This has always been a perceived hurdle for aspiring Registrars where applicants feel they need to pay US$70,000 to ICANN. This has been made clearer now that ICANN only asks the applicant to prove his capability to raise such capital, and sufficient liquid assets reflecting in their balance sheet.
– Security Policy: Learning from a handful of Registrar failures that occurred over the past 2-3 years, ICANN now wants to ensure that such cases never occur again. In the event that this happens, ICANN mandates that the Registrar be prepared with a failover plan (both technical and operational).
This is in no way a comprehensive list of the changes that ICANN has implemented but it does cover the more significant ones. This is the first time in 10 years that the form has been reworked. ICANN says that the introduction of the new form is part of an ongoing improvement process. It’s also a timely update to align the Accreditation process with several changes in the RAA, such as the introduction of Data Escrow mandate.
We believe this is a step in the right direction, in safeguarding the interest of the consumer, but to also bring about more awareness, responsibility and clarity in the Registrar community.
If you have questions about the new process feel free to write us at consult [at] logicboxes.com
P.S.: We’ll soon be announcing an educational webinar, with an industry veteran as our guest speaker. Watch this space for more!
Hello folks, as some of you may already know, last week, ICANN published its revamped Registrar Accreditation application (effective immediately). I thought I’d write a quick snapshot post on this development.
The first glance at the new application tells you that this version is much longer, more comprehensive, and the questions more specific. There’s also more due diligence screening, both on technical and operational aspects of the business. It’s clear that these come from the hard lessons that the industry has learnt over the past few years, including Registrar failures and instances of Registrar/reseller non-compliance.
Let me include in brief, some notes on the changes below:
- Proof of Establishment: And I’m not referring to just the company incorporation certificate. Aspiring Registrars would now also need to show that they’re a credible company backed with sufficient experience and expertise.
- UDRP, IRTP, WDRP Compliance, and Registrar Data Escrow (RDE): ICANN expects the applicant to submit an operational plan to show that their Registrar will always be compliant with all policies and guidelines. Also RDE (which has now been around for a while now) is now officially part of the ICANN Accreditation Application too.
- Financial Stability: This has always been a perceived hurdle for aspiring Registrars where applicants feel they need to pay US$70,000 to ICANN. This has been made clearer now that ICANN only asks the applicant to prove his capability to raise such capital, and sufficient liquid assets reflecting in their balance sheet.
- Security Policy: Learning from a handful of Registrar failures that occurred over the past 2-3 years, ICANN now wants to ensure that such cases never occur again. In the event that this happens, ICANN mandates that the Registrar be prepared with a failover plan (both technical and operational).
This is in no way a comprehensive list of the changes that ICANN has implemented but it does cover the more significant ones. This is the first time in 10 years that the form has been reworked. ICANN says that the introduction of the new form is part of an ongoing improvement process. It’s also a timely update to align the Accreditation process with several changes in the RAA, such as the introduction of Data Escrow mandate.
We believe this is a step in the right direction, in safeguarding the interest of the consumer, but to also bring about more awareness, responsibility and clarity in the Registrar community.
If you have questions about the new process feel free to write us at consult [at] logicboxes.com
P.S.: We’ll soon be announcing an educational webinar, with an industry veteran as our guest speaker. Watch this space for more!
Amreen Bhujwala
Arsenal, Per Mertesacker and Product Marketing form the three core parts of Amreen’s day to day life. A former goalkeeper for a local football club, Amreen is one of the friendliest bookworms you’ll ever come across.
TheBigLieSociety says:
That may narrow the potential applicants to Bill Gates and one or two others.
Boris Fernandez says:
Thanks for the concise guide 🙂
USNP Agency says:
ICANN is an incompetent bureaucracy which does nothing to protect the domain owners (registrants).
In fact, ICANN is one of the worst offenders.
When they ‘de-accredit’ a registrar, ICANN does NOT contact the domain owner (what is the purpose of WHOIS then?) nor does ICANN allow the owner an opportunity to transfer the domains to their own preferred registrar.
ICANN simply transfers all domains to another registrar (selected by ICANN) and essentially allows the ‘gaining’ registrar to hijack the domains and extort renewal fees from unwitting registrants… this policy is criminal.
Worse, ICANN then throws up their hands and denies any accountability for the chaos created by their procedure.
ICANN just did this with three of our domains, and transferred them to DIRECTI (from Blue Gravity) and we STILL have not received anything from -your- company!
abhijit.d says:
(apologies for the late replies)
@USNP Agency – If you can tell me which domains you’re referring to, I’ll try and get someone from Support to help you out. Do you have a ticket ID?
We’ve been managing Blue Gravity customers quite successfully. So, if you can elaborate on your problem, we’ll help you out too
@TheBigLieSociety – LOL
@Boris – You’re welcome 🙂