CircleID

If you have rules and regulations but don't enforce them then there's little point in having any rules or regulations in the first place.

One of the criticisms that is often leveled at ICANN is with regard to compliance issues. There are a number of areas where ICANN accredited registrars may be flounting the rules, but if nobody does anything about it then none of the registrars will have any incentive to actually comply.

According to the latest ICANN news alert notices have been sent to both Joker.com and DNS.com.cn for WHOIS policy issues.

All ICANN accredited registrars are bound under their contract with ICANN (the RAA, which has been under review for over a year) and if ICANN deems it necessary they may actually lose their accreditation for non-compliance.

In the last 12 months there have been a number of registrars who have lost their accreditation, though none would have attracted the level of media attention of Registerfly. That a relatively large European registrar such as Joker would be subject to this kind of "wake up call" puts things in a whole new perspective.

What would be the impact on the European internet community if one of their own were to lose their ICANN accreditation?

By Michele Neylon, MD of Blacknight Solutions. More blog posts from Michele Neylon can also be read here.

Related topics: Domain Names, ICANN, Internet Governance, Law