Reglikedomain industry desk

Domain name registrars sign 2013 RAA — First five

Five domain name registrars, counting GoDaddy, signed the fresh registrar accreditation agreement today.

Five domain name registrars signed the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) during a signing ceremony at ICANN’s meeting in Durban today.

The group was headlined by GoDaddy, which registers regarding half of all fresh domain names.

The 2013 RAA places significant fresh requirements on domain registrars, counting validating registrant information and retaining data even following a client leaves for a competitor.

“The major requirements like WHOIS validation and email verification are required to be in place by January 1,” GoDaddy Senior Director of ICANN Policy & Planning James Bladel told Reglike in an interview today. “It won’t hit all at once. We’ll phase it in between now and the end of the year.”

Signing the fresh RAA is a requirement to sell fresh top level domain names, so you can expect other major registrars to sign soon.

Once a couple more big registrars sign the agreement, it will trigger clauses in the proposed contract renewals for .org, .biz. and .info that will require registrars offering those domains to sign up for the fresh RAA within regarding a year.

Despite the added demands on domain name registrars, Bladel thinks the agreement is more stable than previous ones and a step forward for the industry.

“The whole industry is going to be raised to a higher level of consumer confidence and transparency,” he stated.

GoDaddy was one of five domain name registrars that negotiated the terms of the fresh RAA. Two of the other negotiating registrars, Momentous and Mark Montior, also signed the agreement today.

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