Employee for bidding in domain name auctions — GoDaddy fires

Employee set up an account under a different name in order to participate in domain auctions.

GoDaddy has terminated an employee following the firm discovered that he was bidding in GoDaddy domain name auctions.

The firm investigated the employee and two others following receiving an allegation of wrongdoing. In a blog post, Aftermarket GM Paul Nicks wrote:

This employee created an account not associated with his legal name, and participated in auctions and expiry auctions as a bidder, which is a conflict of interest and a direct violation of our policy.  To be clear, our investigation uncovered NO evidence that this employee used any confidential client information for personal gain, or that he conducted shill-bidding on auctions.

While we believe the employee did not have malicious motivations, GoDaddy does not tolerate such violations of our Code of Conduct. Indeed, many provisions of our Code of Conduct are there specifically to protect our platform. We are very clear that no employee may participate in any auction that involves bidding against our clients. Employees are able to purchase buy now and closeout domains.

GoDaddy is re-educating its employees regarding its rules and stated it is reviewing its platform to find ways to add transparency.

It appears that the activities were limited to one employee. GoDaddy came under fire in 2008 following its then-VP Adam Dicker participated in domain auctions. At the time, GoDaddy didn’t have a policy against employees bidding in auctions.