ICANN takes action against GoDaddy's 60-day domain lockdown period

[mandy]

New ICANN rule will prevent registrar GoDaddy's practice of denying domain transfers of customers who changed their contact details within 60-days of the transfer request

After considering the comments received and other information provided by registrars regarding the Proposed Advisory, ICANN determined that sufficient confusion exists to warrant the issuance of an advisory to assist registrars in understanding that under the Transfer Policy:

1. Registrars are prohibited from denying a domain name transfer request based on non-payment of fees for pending or future registration periods during the Auto-Renew Grace Period; and

2. A registrant change to Whois information is not a valid basis for denying a transfer request.

The Advisory is identical to the Proposed Advisory issued on September 19, 2007, except the term "registration period after expiration" was replaced with "Auto-Renew Grace Period" wherever it appeared in the Proposed Advisory...

full article: http://www.ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=5679&lang=en

From ICANN:

Section A.3 of the Transfer Policy enumerates nine independent bases
that a registrar may rely on to deny a domain name transfer request.
Registrant updates to Whois contact details is not enumerated as a valid
basis to deny a transfer request in the Transfer Policy. In addition,
ordinary changes to Whois data fields are not evidence of fraud and
therefore not a basis to deny a domain name transfer request.

http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/arch...05077.html