Important: RAA Verification process:
As per the new policies implemented by ICANN, on any Domain Registration, the registrant contact of the Domain name will receive an email from the Registrar for the verification of the contact details. If not reverted by the registrant within the 15 day time frame, the Domain will be put on hold by the Registry itself.
Talking about the 2013 Registrar Accreditation
Agreement, we described the changes mandated for the public WHOIS format. Now, let’s take a look at another critical requirement from the RAA, which stems from the Whois Data Accuracy Specification. The requirements from this specification will have a considerable impact on customers and domain holders, and we are about to make certain changes in the system to fulfill them.
Verifying the Registrant’s contact information
As a part of the Whois Data Accuracy specification, ICANN expects the Registrar to verify the contact information for the Registrant contact of each gTLD domain name, within 15 days of
* a domain name being registered with unverified contact details,
* a domain name being transferred in, or
* the contact information of the Registrant contact information being modified.
If the domain holder does not verify the contact information within 15 days, the Registrar must suspend the domain name until the verification is completed. This requirement comes into effect from January 1st, 2014 - domain names that are already registered are not subject to such verification unless their contact information is modified.
How we shall comply with this requirement:
To fulfill our obligation, we are developing the capability to verify the email address of the Registrant contact. Starting January 1st, 2014, the Registrant contact of a domain name will receive an email notification to verify the email address. This mail will contain a link that the Registrant must click on, to complete the verification, within 15 days.
If the registrant does not complete the verification in the allotted time, we shall modify the name servers of the domain name to stop its resolution and point the domain name to a white-labeled holding page. This page will simply instruct that the domain name has been disabled due to the Registrant information being verified, and instruct the Registrant to contact their service provider to make it active again.
Some important aspects of this process:
1. The verification email will be sent out as soon as the email address is associated with a domain name. Additional reminders will be sent on the 7th and 14th day, if the verification isn’t done until then.
2. In the 15 day verification notice period, the domain name will continue to resolve. The domain holder will not be obstructed from using their domain name in any way, unless they don’t complete the verification process in the allowed time.
3. Once an email address has been verified, then all subsequent registrations, transfers or contact updates that use this email address will not require any verification.
4. Once a year, we send out a Whois Data Reminder email to the Registrant of the domain name, in accordance with ICANN guidelines. We shall monitor the delivery status of these emails – if the mail sent to a registrant email address of a domain name were to bounce back, our compliance team will review the case and take appropriate action against the domain name. This new mandate from ICANN is just another measure that illustrates how important it is to have accurate contact information for the domain name holder.
If you have any doubts or questions about this new process, please reach out to our support team and we’d be happy to discuss it with you. Additionally, we also recommend going through the webinar conducted by our Compliance Manager that highlights all the important aspects of ICANN’s 2013 RAA.
