.uk Domains - Gone?

ian · Jun 7, 2019

What is the plan for these registrars, wait until rights expire then sell on? It would be a risky play to try selling to the owner with ROR rights as technically speaking they could claim the rights were taken away prior to the deadline, even long after.

RobM · Jun 7, 2019

Check if they're on auto-renew

armistice · Jun 7, 2019

keys said:
It would make sense for large Registrars to exercise rights on all .uk domains with potential value, at no cost. That leaves a year to be creative about monetising them. Any Registrants within ROR time limit can claim their .uk's, leaving the remainder in a large pool. This would only be visible to those directly involved.

Every additional .uk registered is positive for Nominet, to boost their numbers.

Similar practice has prevailed in .com land for years. Even without selling the domains there are ways to generate revenue.

ian said:
What is the plan for these registrars, wait until rights expire then sell on? It would be a risky play to try selling to the owner with ROR rights as technically speaking they could claim the rights were taken away prior to the deadline, even long after.

imo, based on my understanding of nominets rules
The domains can only be registered by the rights holder within the ROR period.
The registrars could only register these on behalf of the rights holder (Nominets ROR rules)
Registrars cannot therefore sell these off after the ROR period ends as they don't own them

crazihos · Jun 7, 2019

The domains 1and1 have reg'd with Nominet on my behalf and without my permission aren't showing up in my 1and1 account at all - so I need to pay 1and1 a fee to transfer them into the account to manage them and therefore can no longer take up the free for 1 year deal!

That's where they're trying to make their money from the look of it - by forcing us to pay a transfer fee!

keys · Jun 7, 2019

armistice said:
imo, based on my understanding of nominets rules
The domains can only be registered by the rights holder within the ROR period.
The registrars could only register these on behalf of the rights holder (Nominets ROR rules)
Registrars cannot therefore sell these off after the ROR period ends as they don't own them

"laws without enforced consequences are merely suggestions"

markb · Jun 7, 2019

crazihos said:
The domains 1and1 have reg'd with Nominet on my behalf and without my permission aren't showing up in my 1and1 account at all - so I need to pay 1and1 a fee to transfer them into the account to manage them and therefore can no longer take up the free for 1 year deal!

That's where they're trying to make their money from the look of it - by forcing us to pay a transfer fee!

I just went on to 1and1 live chat and asked them why I couldn't register my free .uk domain and there reply was :

"If you owned corfu.uk IONOS will be securing the domain name for you, and you will be receiving notification next week on how to assign the domain on your control panel.
You will be notify also next week whether there will be charge or not."

You would have thought an email would be sent first reminding you to register them for free, and if you didn't then they should register them for you.

I would advise other 1and1 domain customers to contact them too.

crazihos · Jun 7, 2019

markb said:
I just went on to 1and1 live chat and asked them why I couldn't register my free .uk domain and there reply was :

"If you owned corfu.uk IONOS will be securing the domain name for you, and you will be receiving notification next week on how to assign the domain on your control panel.
You will be notify also next week whether there will be charge or not."

You would have thought an email would be sent first reminding you to register them for free, and if you didn't then they should register them for you.

I would advise other 1and1 domain customers to contact them too.

I think the free .uk deal was supposed to end on the 14th June so I'm hoping they don't charge for this. In some respects what they have done is good as it protects people who forget to reg the .uk - but I would have preferred an email before they did it.

RobM · Jun 7, 2019

markb said:
I just went on to 1and1 live chat and asked them why I couldn't register my free .uk domain and there reply was :

"If you owned corfu.uk IONOS will be securing the domain name for you, and you will be receiving notification next week on how to assign the domain on your control panel.
You will be notify also next week whether there will be charge or not."

You would have thought an email would be sent first reminding you to register them for free, and if you didn't then they should register them for you.

I would advise other 1and1 domain customers to contact them too.

They want you to wait until next week so they can say 'oh there's no free promotion'.
So what they have effectively done is register the domains you didn't ask for (possibly with auto-renew on?) at NO cost to them but they are going to charge you to have them. And nominet deem this behaviour acceptable? I think that shows how 'fair' the release is going to be.

timter51 · Jun 7, 2019

Just wow, holy shit.

Adam H · Jun 7, 2019

If they are registering domains, not automatically putting in your account but they are showing at nominet...........i'd be moving away from any registrar that done that straight away. Horrible pratice, they are basically registering in the knowledge that not everyone will notice they've been registered imo. If it was in good will, then the domains would land in your account straight away without action needing to be taken to chase them.

martin-s · Jun 7, 2019

They need to register them now, otherwise their catching allowance would be affected. Cynical, moi?

Murray · Jun 7, 2019

Say you had a .co.uk registered before a big trademark, you don't want to register the .uk for fear of opening up an issue

Your host then registers the .uk in your name, without proper consent, then you get legal action taken against you

dee · Jun 7, 2019

This is all seeming to be a massively shady fustercluck.

Surely registering domains they don't have ROR for is illegal ? All they can do is remind customers to register them, not actually register them without the customer knowing ?

And what then happens to the decent domains that dont get registered by legitimate customers with rights before the designated drop date ? Do they just hold them till a time of choosing then drop and immediately re register them so it looks like they dropped ?

Whois-Search · Jun 7, 2019

156,558 registered since Tuesday

Whois-Search · Jun 7, 2019

And what about Nominet allowing the promotion in the first place:

https://registrars.nominet.uk/uk-rights-registration-promotion

On the Webinar (5 mins) they said a few registrars had asked for it:

https://vimeo.com/showcase/5366830

However do you see any large registrars offering the free promotion to the public ?

jasman · Jun 10, 2019

This is really bad practice and an abuse of Nominet's promotion. Even if they give these domains to you for free, you might wish to register the .uk domain at a different registrar from where the .co.uk is held, but now you're locked into the same registrar. I think they would be on very shakey ground if they charge a reg fee or an outbound transfer fee for this.

Can we put a list together of which registrars have been registering the domains without telling people? So after this debacle, if people wish to move registrars, they will know which registrars were in on it and hence which to avoid.

aZooZa · Jun 10, 2019

There's an awful lot of ordure heading for the turbine intake here. It all borders on insanity.

Whois-Search · Jun 10, 2019

Fasthosts (same owner as 1&1) now asking you to call a phone number to claim your .uk registered under this promotion !

Nigel · Jun 10, 2019

Best move we made was moving the best part of our portfolio to 20i earlier this year. Then, in March, they said they would register the .uk on our behalf, for free, unless we told them not to. So they were all registered in our name, and appeared in our nominet account. No funny business, just a really good service.