Written by Jessie Jeffery, Business Development Guru, CyberGuru
Recent changes to the domain name licencing rules mean some businesses may no longer be eligible to retain ownership of their domain names.
The .au Domain Administration (auDA) is the body which oversees the administration of domain names ending in .au. As a result of recent rule changes by the auDA all businesses are now required to have an active ABN associated with their domain names. Businesses who fail to link an active ABN to their domain name will become ineligible to retain ownership of their domain name.
We recommend all businesses check which ABN is associated with their domain names by visiting Whois Lookup, and entering their domain name in the Lookup address box and the in the Control text box (to verify you are not a robot). This ABN should then be checked at ABN Lookup to ensure it is still active.
Businesses with an invalid ABN have two options should they wish to retain ownership of their domain names. Those businesses which have allowed their ABN to become inactive need to reactivate their ABN online. Alternatively, those businesses which have commenced trading under a new ABN need to apply for a Change of Registrant through their domain name registrar.
Any domain names bought or renewed since 12 April 2021 are already subject to these new licencing rules. For businesses with domain names bought or renewed before 12 April 2021, these rules will apply upon renewal of your domain name registration. To assist businesses in being compliant with this new rule, many domain name registrars are inviting businesses with inactive ABNs to update their details 90 days before the renewal date of their domain name registration. Please check with your domain registrar if you have any concerns regarding this.
Here at CyberGuru, we are in the process of contacting all impacted clients who have registered their domain names through us. If you are looking at a domain name registrar, need help with updating hyour domain name to be compliant or help to transfer to us to be your registrar, please feel free to contact us.