ICANN sends breach notice to Freenom’s accredited domain registrar – Domain Name Wire

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Andrew Allemann 1 Comment September 21, 2023
ICANN has sent a breach notice to the registrar for the third time. The words "Breach Notice" in red block letters on black background
ICANN has sent a breach notice (pdf) to OpenTLD B.V., an accredited registrar that’s part of the Freenom group of companies.
Freenom is best known for giving away free domain registrations in a dwindling number of country code domain names as it faces legal challenges.
But it also has common ownership with OpenTLD in order to offer ICANN-accredited TLDs. (It doesn’t seem to provide new registrations right now, at least through freenom.com.)
ICANN says OpenTLD is not responding to several requests it has made:
1. OpenTLD’s failure to make registration data and records available upon request by ICANN, as required by Section 3.4.3 of the RAA.
2. OpenTLD’s failure to permit the Registrants at Expiration (“RAE”) to renew expired domain name registrations, as required by Section 2.2.5 of the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”).
3. OpenTLD’s failure to provide Registered Name Holders (RNHs) with AuthInfo codes and remove the “ClientTransferProhibited” status from domain names upon RNHs’ request, as required by Section I.A.5 of the Transfer Policy. OpenTLD also failed to provide a valid reason for denying the requests supported by the Transfer Policy.
The breach notice lists a number of domains for which it would like details and also says it needs a complaince certificate from the registrar.
It points out this isn’t the first time ICANN has raised issues like this with the registrar. It also sent breach notices in 2017 and 2020.
Categories: Domain Registrars Tags: freenom, opentld
Andrew Allemann has been registering domains for over 25 years and publishing Domain Name Wire since 2005. He has been quoted about his expertise in domain names by The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and NPR. Connect with Andrew: LinkedIn – Twitter/X – Facebook
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lothar74 says
September 25, 2023 at 10:59 am
The registrar received a suspension notice in 2015 as well. Not sure if that is classified as a formal notice of breach, but it is 100% for not complying with the RAA.
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