Nominet members revolt over “deepest pockets wins” auction plans
A group of Nominet members and registrars have launched a petition to prevent Nominet from introducing registry-level auctions for dropping .uk domain names.
The petition, organized by Netistrar, reads: “We the undersigned members request that Nominet maintains equal registrar access to expired domain names on a first come first served basis.”
Nominet recently launched a policy consultation that lays out plans to essentially kill off the existing system of drop-catching expired domains and replace it with either registry auctions or a pay-to-play model asking fees of up to £6,000 a year.
The petition says that “these proposals technically and financially restrict a registrars ability to access expired domains”, noting that other ccTLDs “manage an expiry process without an expensive and centralized auction system.”
So far, 70 registrars and individuals (out of the about 3,000 Nominet members) have signed the petition, but they account for more than 400,000 .uk domains.
The petition will be presented at Nominet’s annual general meeting in September. The current policy consultation ends August 14.
This is the model of the future. Cut you all out. ICANN promotes top down managment. Special privilages. Now they claw back. Every step of the way has been leading to things like this.
If you see me on twitter, I’ve been suggesting godaddy preparing to do the exact same thing, and they have 100’s of TLD.
New normal. While ‘stars busy bashing each other, they’re getting wrecked.
Registry act as registar. Registars getting snuffed.
Throwing their money out, offering ‘discounts’ on promos. Promoting this or that, for the same people that are about to take their business right away.
The domains registries like will be ‘reserved’ for premium – no catch.
It’s already happening. It’s allowed. So why wouldn’t they climb aboard the ICANN money train too?
.uk is a ccTLD and doesn’t come under the remit of ICANN
Nominet is a member of the CCNSO and has shared letters of understanding.
Also premium names are usually at the point of registration.
Nominet are proposing to auction expired names in a sealed bid blind auction.