ICANN is opening a Public Comment Period for the draft Expired Registration Recovery Policy

ICANN is opening a Public Comment Period for the draft Expired Registration Recovery Policy. This process including the reply period is scheduled to be completed 30th of November 2012. Members of the Internet Community are asked to provide feedback on the proposed document.

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The proposed Policy is based on recommendations from the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council related to Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery (“PEDNR”).

The Registrar Accreditation Agreement between the registrars and ICANN contains a number of provisions outlining the obligations of registrars to communicate the details of their deletion and auto-renewal policies to new registrants. However, because of diverse registrar business practices in the way registrations are handled after they expire, some registrants might not fully understand their available options for recovering domain names post-expiration. Many registrars currently offer post-expiration grace periods of varying lengths, during which registrants can renew expired names. Similarly, many gTLD registries and registrars offer registrants a redemption service, allowing registrants a certain amount of time to redeem names after they are deleted.

The proposed Expired Registration Recovery Policy is intended to help align registrant expectations with registrar practices by establishing certain minimum communications requirements and making renewal and redemption of registrations uniformly available in prescribed circumstances. When the Policy is finalized, ICANN will create educational materials in consultation with interested stakeholders to help registrants properly manage their registrations.

The Generic Names Supporting Organization Council (“GNSO”) initiated a Policy Development Process in May 2009, which resulted in the submission of several policy and process recommendations to the ICANN Board of Directors, which the Board approved on 28 October 2011. ICANN staff developed this proposed, draft Policy in consultation with an Implementation Review Team convened by the GNSO.

Next Steps: ICANN will review the submitted comments and, where appropriate, incorporate suggested modifications into the Policy. Once finalized, the Policy will be implemented and made effective for all gTLD registrars and registries.

Here are some important excerpts from the Draft Expired Registration Recovery Policy:

Prior to the expiration of any gTLD registration, registrars must notify the registered name holder of the expiration at least two times. One of these notices must be sent approximately one month prior to expiration and one must be sent approximately one week prior to expiration.

If a registration is not renewed by the RAE(Registrant After Expiration) or deleted by the registrar, within five days after the expiration of the registration, the registrar must transmit at least one additional expiration notice to the RAE that includes instructions for renewing the registration.

With the exception of sponsored gTLD registries, all gTLD registries must offer a Redemption Grace Period (“RGP”) of 30 days[…]