Your domain should be safe even if you can’t renew it because ICANN terminated the registrar.
A Domain Name Wire reader contacted me last week with a big concern: they couldn’t renew their domain at Freenom (OpenTLD B.V.).
ICANN has de-accredited the registrar and is finding a new registrar to transfer the domains to.
Not having access to your domains during a transition like this can be troublesome. It’s even more worrisome if your domain expires and needs to be renewed.
I reached out to ICANN to better understand what happens in this circumstance. Their support team stated:
As part of the De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure (DARTP), ICANN takes steps to help ensure as smooth a transition as possible. These steps include working with registries to ensure domain names are not deleted due to the actions or inaction of a de-accredited registrar (including not providing registrants the ability to renew registrations).
This usually involves the registry auto-renewing the domain for a grace period.
ICANN said it’s essential that, once ICANN moves the domains to a new registrar, domain owners quickly work with that registrar to pay for any domain renewals.
Snat says
Out of interest has ICANN outright said this will be happening with .tk domains? I got a paid domain that I can’t renew and while it isn’t of great importance it is something I would like to keep. I only just learnt about what happened with Freenom the other week.
Siemen Roorda says
ICANN only oversees the gTLDs. As .tk is a ccTLD, this is not covered by ICANN’s safeguards.
Snat says
I thought as much. Many thanks for confirming.