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DENIC kicks out NCC as ICANN’s sole escrow agent

Kevin Murphy, July 17, 2023, 18:26:23 (UTC), Domain Registrars

DENIC has won the contract to be the sole supplier of registrar data escrow services for ICANN, the Org has announced.

The German registry is replacing NCC Group, which acquired Iron Mountain’s escrow business two years ago. Iron Mountain has been ICANN’s chosen escrow agent since it started requiring registrars to escrow registrant data in 2007 in the wake of the RegisterFly scandal.

Under ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement, registrars have to deposit this data either daily or weekly, depending on how many domains under management they have, to mitigate the risk of domains being lost.

Registrars can choose to use ICANN’s chosen escrow agent, in which case ICANN pays, or they can choose another from an approved list, in which case the registrar pays.

Naturally enough, the vast majority of registrars choose to go with the free option. DENIC has been on the approved list since 2017. There are also one Russian and three Chinese companies approved to provide these services.

The change of contractor means escrow will now be provided by a EU-based company for the first time. UK-based NCC’s contract was via its US subsidiary, NCC Group Software Resilience (NA) LLC. ICANN said DENIC has opened up facilities in North America.

ICANN said NCC “will no longer be accepting new registrars with immediate effect and will no longer provide [Registrar Data Escrow] services starting 1 November 2024”, so registrars have some breathing space to migrate.

The deal was worth $800,000 a year to NCC, according to ICANN’s latest tax forms. One assumes DENIC is doing it cheaper.


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Comments (1)

  1. PeterPete says:

    That’s great news! Denic is collectively owned by its member registrars, and everyone can become one!

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