Whereas .com domain names have no restriction, this is not the case for all existing extensions. Obtaining and owning a domain name is associated with legal obligations such as:

• The effective usage of a domain name. For example, a .travel domain name must be related to the tourism industry
• Eligibility requirements. For example, the address of the contact owner of a .eu must be located within the European Union. Or, a .fr domain representing a city name requires to provide a descriptive reason of why the customer wants this domain name

These conditions are set by the extension operator, the registry, and vary according to the extensions while evolving over time.

In this article, we will explain the roles of the different contacts related to a domain name and some examples showing the scope of diversity of eligibility rules.

Contacts

A lot of eligibility conditions are related to contacts. A contact is a legal person (moral or natural) related to a domain name with a given role. It contains information about the identity of the contact, like the name, the address, the e-mail address and the phone number.

There are typically 4 types of contacts: 

• Registrant: the legal owner the domain name
• Administrator: the administrator of the domain. They have the ability to do all possible actions on a domain name (DNS records change, renew, transfer out…)
• Technical: a technical contact has only the ability to change technical data on the domain name like DNS records. They don’t have any influence on the domain lifecycle though
• Billing: the account responsible of all billing related topics such as invoices and payment. By default, it is the account who created the order

By default, the technical and billing contacts are the same as the administrator.

As a customer you can configure the registrant, the administrator and the technical contacts when ordering a domain. The billing contact can be changed later in the OVHcloud Manager.

At OVHcloud, the registrant is unique to a domain name. Changing its properties is local to the domain name it’s related to. Technical and administrative contacts are global though. Changing their properties will change properties for all services using these contacts, like other domain names or web hosting you ordered.

As an individual person who wants to buy a domain to host a blog, you will often provide the same contact information for all 4 contacts. It’s the simple case.

But there are situations when all four contacts may be different. Here are some examples:

	An individual person	A company bought the domain name directly on OVHcloud	A company delegated the domain name through an OVHcloud reseller (the company is not our customer)
Registrant	You	The company itself, with the CEO’s name	The company which is customer of the reseller
Administrator	You	People owning the responsibility domain name lifecycles in the company. Often the CTO.	The reseller company
Technical	You	Operation engineer managing production changes on the website or service using the domain name	The reseller company
Billing	You	The financial service of the company	The reseller company

Data validation

As explained before, although each registry has its own rules in terms of registration, you must provide up-to-date and accurate data to the registrar when you create your domain name. This way, you must provide at least an accurate name, postal address, telephone number and email address. If you don’t comply with this requirement your registration may be cancelled by the registry. Checks on the validity of the data provided by the registrant may take place at the time of registration or during the life of the domain name. In any case, inaccurate data may lead to the suspension or even deletion of the domain name, according to the Registries’ rules. Thus, being the link between the registrant and the registries, the registrar is subject to these different rules and must ensure that the registrants respect them in this matter.

This way, as a registrar we may ask you for specific documents. As an example, the .ie which asks the registrant to upload some specific documents to finalize the registration of your .ie domain name. It may be your VAT number (in case of a legal entity) or a copy of your Irish passport (natural person). Thus, the registry requires the provision of a document from a list in order for the registrant to prove its connection with Ireland.

In this logic, a customer wishing to register a .eu needs to be a European citizen or prove that they are living in the European Union. Due to the Brexit, the conditions of registration evolved, preventing a British citizen living in the United Kingdom to register a domain name in .eu. The only exception being a British citizen residing in the European Union – they are eligible to register for a .eu domain (more info here)

Other registries and therefore extensions are concerned by these particular eligibility conditions to the registration of the domain name. We will give you a last example. Indeed, if you would like to register a .fr domain representing a city name, AFNIC requires you to provide a descriptive reason on why you want this domain and/or supporting documents. If you are the mayor of a municipality and you wish to register a domain name in the name of this municipality, for example, you will have to provide proof of your function. Following the explanations, AFNIC will authorize the registration or not.

Finally, there are some extensions for which the registry reserves the right to cancel the registration because it does not meet the eligibility requirements for registration. As an example, this is the case of .travel. This extension is open to all individuals, organizations and businesses related to travel and tourism. Thus, any participant in the travel and tourism industry can register a .travel domain name as long as it demonstrates a real link with the industry. When registering your domain name, you will only have to accept the special conditions about .travel in the very last step of your order, by validating your affiliation to this industry, before payment is made.

If you find yourself in one of the above cases, you will have to update your contact data when you register your domain name. The manage my contacts feature is accessible at step 3 of the order funnel. You will only have to click on “Manage contacts/owner” in order to modify the Owner’s information or directly create a new profile respecting the eligibility conditions of the extension. Please see below:

And last but not least, as we explained above, there are also data verification after the creation of the domain name. Indeed, we can contact a particular registrant at the specific request of the registry when there is a suspicion of inaccurate data. In addition, we also check annually the data of our customers by sending an email to validate their email address and update their data if necessary. This is the ICANN process called WDRP for Whois Data Reminder Policy. As a registrar, we reserve the right to suspend the domain if a problem is detected during these checks.

Conclusion

Customers have legal obligations and are required to respect the rules provided by the registries. Often, these rules are related to the registrant, one of the type of contacts that is associated to the domain name, but it can also be related to the usage of the domain name.

This series of 3 articles is now finished. It was an introduction to the world of domain names at OVHcloud.

We have a lot of topics to cover. In the next articles, we will talk about technical and business issues.
For example, we can talk about the EPP standard, the most used communication protocol between registrars and registries. And how we test our system when some registries do not provide testing platforms.
We can also talk about the interest of brand protection and the interest of having a domain name for a company (even for offline activities).

See you next time 

What is a domain name?

A domain name is a unique human readable identification string that is rented by an individual, a company or an organization on the internet, in order to simplify memorization of elements through domain name servers. For example, domain names can be used to remember an IP address for a web site, an SPF entry for mailing, or a MX mailbox, etc…

The main goal of a domain name is to allow to connect to an internet server by using an easy-to-remember, explicit, and persistent name, instead of its IP address. For example, ovhcloud.com is easier to remember than 54.39.46.56.

DNS, or ‘Domain Name System’ are services whose goal is to translate a domain name to an ip address. It’s a hierarchical system. In this article series, we won’t talk about DNS, and its sophisticated mechanisms. 

We will only talk about domain name. If you are interested in DNS, check our blog regularly. But it’s necessary to understand that domain names are organized in subordinate levels of the DNS root domain, which is nameless. The domain root is the top of hierarchical system.

Below this top level, we find global TLDs (Top Level Domain) like .com, .org, .net, and so on, as well as domain names representing countries called ccTLDs (like .fr for France or .uk for United Kingdom). Then, we can find a label which is the differentiating name of the site such as a brand or an organization, like ovhcloud.

Finally, you can find sub-domains (sub entities of the domain) that can redirect to another ip address like www, docs, or static to have a particular domain for static files on a internet website.
We will talk about different TLDs further in this article.

Basic notions 

ICANN, Registry, Registry backend, Registrar, Registrant: who is who?

To better understand the Domain Names Industry, we must define the various stakeholders.
First, the registry is the entity in charge of the management of the top-level domain names (TLDs). They create TLDs (also called extensions), their relevant rules and work with registrars to sell domains name to customers. As an example, .com is managed by Verisign and .fr by Afnic. Most of the time the registry is a private company, but it may be an association in relation with a government, particularly for ccTLDs.

On another end, there is also the registry backend. This organization manages the top-level domain names from a technical perspective. Sometimes, the registry and the registry backend are different organizations but most of the time they are the same.

A registrar is an accredited organization, like OVHcloud, which is able to sell domain names to the public with the panel of TLDs provided by registries. As a registrar, we purchase a fixed-term license, which can be renewed indefinitely. Thus, we make this license available to our customers, the registrants, who buy their domain name. This way, our work is very similar to that of a real estate agency. Customers don’t rent a house for a year, but a domain name.

In addition, at OVHcloud we combine our registrar role with the registry one for the .ovh that we manage. However, for this special case we are not the registry backend since we use the services of Afnic, like a lot of french TLDs.

The owner of the domain name is called the registrant. It can be a natural person or a company. As a registrant, you can manage your domain name’s settings through the registrar: at OVHcloud, you can do so on the Control Panel. Then the registrar forwards the changes made by the registrant to the registry: the registry’s database can be updated. Indeed, the registrar acts as a link between the registrants, who are its direct customers, and the registry. In this way, the registrant is always in relation with the registrar but never with the registry.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, oversees the entire domain name system. It is a non-profit organization responsible for coordinating domain names, IP addresses and DNS, formed in 1998. ICANN brings together people from around the world who work to maintain the security, stability and interoperability of the Internet.
Thus, it promotes competition and develops policies about DNS (Domain Name System) use. This way, it makes sure IP addresses and domains are unique by coordinating these across the world, so we can avoid duplicates. ICANN’s role is to oversee the “universal resolvability”. This means that wherever you are on the network – and hence the world – that you receive the same results when you access the network.
It also accredits Registrars to let us sell domains to the Registrants. In a certain way, ICANN is dedicated to preserving stability on the Internet. However, ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet but through its role ICANN has an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

The different types of TLDs

There are two types of TLDs: gTLD and ccTLD (Generic Top-Level Domains and Country-Code Top-Level Domains).

gTLDs are transnational extensions. The most known is obviously .com, but we also find .org .net .info. The .ovh extension is also a gTLD. Most of the time and unlike ccTLDs, gTLDs do not correspond to a geographical area, but rather to a thematic field. In general, a .tech refers to a website focused on the tech and geek universe while an .org (for organization) generally refers to non-profit organizations. Note that unlike ccTLDs, gTLDs are always composed of a minimum of 3 letters. A ccTLD is composed of 2 letters.
It is important to distinguish the gTLDs called “sponsored” from those that are not. To register a domain name with a sponsored TLD, some conditions must be met. They are enacted by sponsors: they can be private companies or organizations. For example, .gouv.fr is an extension sponsored by the French government and cannot be used by anyone. On the contrary, non-sponsored TLDs are regulated and controlled centrally by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Thus, not being subject to conditions like sponsored TLDs, a domain name with a non-sponsored gTLD can be registered by individuals, companies, organizations, associations, etc.

The ccTLDs, as for them, are logically linked to countries or regions of the World. We find .fr for France, and .be for Belgium for example. Generally, a ccTLD allows to indicate the country of the domain name but some are chosen because of their brand value such as the .tv of Tuvalu and the .io (British Indian Ocean Territory). However, it should be noted that most ccTLDs have linkage requirements that must be demonstrated in order to register a domain name with that ccTLD. Each registry has its own rules for domain name registration, which sometimes implies the provision of specific documents to prove one’s link to the country and/or nationality. This is the case of the .ie registry, which asks the registrant to provide some documents to validate the registration of its domain name.

The multitude of extensions allows to register specific domain names and therefore to stick as well as possible with the use that is made of it. For example, if you want to register a .com or a .fr domain name but the name is not available, you can find what you need in the list of all the existing gTLDs.

Come and purchase your domain name !

Whois

A directory 

As soon as domain names appeared, the need for a directory became essential. There had to be a way to find out who owned a particular domain. Whois protocol has been created, and recently improved with the new RDAP protocol.
When you request whois information on a domain, you can find this information (not exhaustive):

– owner information (administrative, technical contacts)
– creation date and expiration date
– registrar name
– etc…

The representation scheme is often different from one extension to another because each registry chooses its data scheme.

Several tools exist to make whois requests. For example, the ‘whois’ command in your terminal, or our whois for example : https://www.ovh.com/fr/cgi-bin/tools/check_whois.pl 

Debate between public data and protection of privacy

As explained above, depending on the registry, the WHOIS publication rules may differ, especially concerning ccTLDs. Indeed, the ccTLD registries have their own rules obliging the registrar to publish certain information. The gTLDs are subject to the ICANN rules in this matter, which stated that the name, address, telephone number and email address must appear on the WHOIS. Thus, the registrar has to respect a lot of different rules regarding the display of the WHOIS.

In spite of the divergence of rules, the GDPR has come to simplify the publication of the data in the WHOIS since its entry into force in 2018, as we are no longer allowed to publish the personal data of the registrants. This way, the principle of public access has been challenged. At OVHcloud, the only way to contact the owner of a domain name is the Contact Request Form through which a third party can join them directly without seeing their name and email address.

Nevertheless, these are general obligations and it is often up to the registrars to establish the disclosure mechanism themselves. Even today, there is no uniform process to guide the actors involved in this matter.
This is the subject of much debate. On the one hand, there are the privacy advocates, who are happy to see the GDPR applied through the non-disclosure of the data. On the other side, the legitimate access seekers who argue for the protection of intellectual property rights or the protection of the public interest.

Paradoxically, anonymization can also help people who may be scrupulous to hide behind this mechanism so as not to respond to disputes relating to intellectual property or other legal abuse. For example a brand whose domain name in .com has been registered by a third party. Fortunately, there are so-called “abuse” mechanisms allowing legal recourse to be made to the registries.

What’s next?

We explained in this article what a domain name is, the different types of TLDs, who the involved actors are, and the whois tool with its ambivalence.

Now that you know the basics about domain names, let us explain their life cycles. What happens after your domain name is created?

See you soon for a new article dedicated to domain names.

On December 31st, 2020, the UK left the European Union. This withdrawal has many consequences, particularly in relation to domain names. For example, there was an impact on the domain name portfolios of British individuals and companies.

As a response, it’s important to analyze the IT solutions available to British businesses that ensure they are able to survive in the European digital space. To do so, the policies adopted by the various European Registries, whether European ccTLDs or national ccTLDs and other geoTLDs, must be taken into account.

I. .EU : the European TLD

Since January 1^st, 2021, EURid (.EU Registry) no longer allows the registration of new .EU domain names by British registrants. Moreover, from that date, EURid no longer allows the transfer of a domain name to a British registrant.

As a result, the eligibility criteria have evolved. With regard to the European regulations in force on the subject, .EU domain names can now be registered by:

• A European Union citizen, regardless of his place of residence;
• An individual person who is not a citizen of the Union and who resides in a member state;
• A company established within the Union; or
• An organization established in the Union, without prejudice to applicable national law.

The only exception being a British citizen residing in the European Union – they are eligible to register for a .EU domain.

A few dates to remember…

Until June 30^th, 2021: not eligible .EU domains are moved to the so-called “suspended” status. This status means a domain name can no longer support any service (such as website and email) but may still be reinstated if registration data is updated to meet the eligibility criteria. During this period, British registrants can always regain access to their domain name by updating their data with their Registrar.

On July 1^st, 2021, EURid will notify by email all UK registrants and their registrars that their domain name is no longer compliant with the .EU regulatory framework and is moved to the so-called “withdrawn” status. Thus, the domain name is not in the zone file and cannot support any service. During this period, the only possible operation to reactivate a “withdrawn” domain is a ContactUpdate. After updating the contact or creating a new contact with valid data, if the registrant wishes to reactivate his domain name, it will be necessary to make a legal transfer. This is a procedure carried out by EURid’s legal department which will validate the reactivation of the domain name.

On January 1^st, 2022, all the domain names with a “withdrawn” status, will be revoked. They will then become available for general registration. For security reasons, their release will occur in batches.

Now that we’ve analyzed the European regulations, let’s focus on the ccTLDs of the Member States.

II. ccTLDs of the Member State of the European Union

As mentioned above, each Member State of the European Union is free to lay down the rules of its choice regarding eligibility. This leads to many disparities in the Union. In addition, the ccTLDs are subject to the jurisdictions of the countries concerned and therefore to their law. On the other hand, the eligibility criteria of a ccTLD are subject to the rules of the Registries and so they can change at any time. This must be taken into account when purchasing a domain with a ccTLD.

As the principle of the free movement of goods also applies to domain names, territorial restrictions cannot apply to European companies and citizens. However, they do apply to legal entities whose registered office is located outside the European Union and to natural persons who are not European citizens or who do not live in a Member State.

Thus, due to Brexit, British individuals and companies are no longer allowed to register a ccTLDs domain related to the following European countries:

• .BG – Bulgaria : art. 3 of the terms and conditions for domain name registration and support in the .BG zone and the sub-zones,
• .CZ – Czech Republic : art. 12.6 of the Rules of Domain Names Registration under the .cz ccTLD,
• .FR – France : press release from AFNIC,
• .HU –  Hungary : art. 1.1.1. of the Domain registry Policy,
• .IT – Italy : art. 1.2.3.6) of the Assignment and management of domain names in the ccTLD .it,
• .LV – Latvia : art. 3.1. of the Policy for acquisition of the right to use domain names under the top level domain .lv.

On the other hand, British individuals and companies will be able to keep their domains in some European countries such as:

• .AT – Austria : art. 1 of the General Terms and Conditions,
• .BE – Belgium : art. 1 and 3 of the Terms and Conditions for .be domain name registrations,
• .DE – Germany : §3(4) of the DENIC Domain Terms and Conditions,
• .DK – Denmark : Terms and Conditions for the Right to Use a .DK Domain Name,
• .EE – Estonia : art. 3.1.1, 4 and 4(1) of the .ee Domain Regulation,
• .ES – Spain : .ES Terms and Services (in Spanish),
• .FI – Finland : Domain Name Regulation 68/2016,
• .HR – Croatia –only legal entities are allowed to register a domain name with proof of a British ID number– : art. 15 of the Organisation and Management of the National Top-Level Domain, as amended by Article 5 of the Ordinance on Amendments to the Ordinance on the Organisation and Management of the National Top-Level Domain,
• .IE – Ireland –additional conditions may be required– : art. 3E of the Registration and Naming in the .IE Namespace Policy, Process, Procedures, Rules & Guidelines,
• .LT – Lithuania : Procedural Regulation for the .LT Top-Level Domain,
• .LU – Luxemburg : art. 2 of the Domain Name Charter under .lu,
• .MT – Malta : art. 4.3 of the Domain Name Registration Policy,
• .NL – The Netherlands –additional conditions may be required– : art. 1.1. of the General Terms and Conditions for .nl Registrants (1 May 2019),
• .PL – Poland : .pl Domain Name Regulations,
• .PT – Portugal : art. 11 of the .PT Domain Registration Rules,
• .RO – Romania : Rules for Registration,
• .SE – Sweden : Terms and Conditions of Registration For the top-level domain .se.
• .SK – Slovakia –eligibility rules recently updated– : art. 2.1 of the Terms and Conditions of Domain Name Service in .sk Top Level Domain,

What about the British ccTLD .uk and its SLDs ?

Despite Brexit, the conditions of eligibility remain the same. European individuals and legal entities can still register a .UK domain name under the same conditions as before December 31^st, 2020. All the British SLDs managed by Nominet are not affected.

III. geoTLDS of the Member State of the European Union

We also need to consider geoTLDs. These extensions are linked to a city, a region or a cultural community. Most of the time, some eligibility rules should be respected and/or sometimes a content control or cultural interest may be required.

First of all, let’s focus on the geoTLDs with no restrictions (and so no territorial restrictions). British individuals and companies will still be able to register domain names with the following extensions:

• .BRUSSELS – Brussels : art. 2.1, .BRUSSELS/.VLAANDEREN 2012 Terms & Conditions,
• .IRISH – Ireland : art. 1 of the General Registration Policy,
• .KOELN / .COLOGNE – Koeln / Cologne : General Registration Policy for .KOELN and .COLOGNE,
• .VLAANDEREN – Vlaanderen : art. 2.1, .BRUSSELS/.VLAANDEREN 2012 Terms & Conditions.

With the following extensions, they will also be able to register domain names without territorial restrictions, however an additional criterion is required:

• .BARCELONA / .BCN – Barcelona – a link with Barcelona is required and a content control applies : art. 2.1, Normativa de registre de .barcelona,
• .CAT – Catalonia – languages and cultural conditions apply : art. 2.2 of the .CAT Domain Name Registration Policy,
• .EUS – Basque Country – a link with the Basque Country is required + languages and cultural conditions apply : art. 2 of the .eus Registration Policy,

And last, there are also geoTLDs with territorial restrictions, so British people will not be able to register domain names with the following extensions:

• .ALSACE – Alsace – alternatively, cultural interest is required : art. 2.1, Politique d’enregistrement .alsace,
• .BAYERN – Bayern : art. 3b, Domain Name Registration Policy,
• .BERLIN – Berlin : art. 5.1, Policy for the Registration of .berlin Domain Names,
• .BZH – Britanny – alternatively, cultural interest is required : Conditions d’enregistrement du .BZH,
• .CORSICA – Corsica – alternatively, cultural interest is required : art. 1.2, Politique d’enregistrement du .CORSICA,
• .HAMBURG – Hamburg : art. 5.1, Policy for the Registration of .HAMBURG Domain Names,
• .MADRID – Madrid – alternatively, a direct or indirect link with Madrid is required : art. 4.1.1 del Contrato de registro de nombre de dominio “.MADRID”,
• .PARIS – Paris – alternatively, a direct or indirect link with Madrid is required : art. 2.1, .PARIS Registration Policy.

Registry eligibility rules are sometimes complicated and differ from Registry to Registry, and thus from ccTLD to ccTLD… However, we hope this blogpost will help you better understand the impact of Brexit on domain names, whether you are directly impacted or not.

Come and purchase your Domain at OVHcloud !