Q. If ICANN terminated Registerfly’s accreditation agreement on 31 March, why do they still claim to be accredited?
A. Registerfly decided to file an arbitration action to stall the termination. For better or worse, this is their right under the accreditation agreement. The accreditation agreement is a contract that ICANN has to follow. If we didn’t follow the agreement, Registerfly could potentially continue operations as an accredited registrar indefinitely. So please be patient and understand that we are doing everything we legally can to protect registrants without jeopardizing our right to terminate Registerfly’ accreditation.
Q. What will happen when Registerfly’s accreditation is finally terminated?
A. There are a number of paths we could pursue, and to some extent, the one we follow will depend on the behavior of Registerfly. In the ‘big picture’ the process looks like this: (1) Registerfly loses its access to the registries; (2) a competent and qualified accredited registrar is selected by ICANN to receive a ‘bulk transfer’ of names (and underlying data) from Registerfly to it; (3) former Registerfly customers will be able to contact the new registrar to manage or transfer their names.
Q. How does the bulk transfer work? UPDATED
A. ICANN has the power to approve a bulk transfer from one registrar to another. We will not do so unless the transfer is in the community interest. We have told Kevin Medina he should name a “gaining registrar” now and stop hurting his customers, but he has not done so. If Kevin does name a gaining registrar, we will only approve the transfer if it is in the community interest.
In a bulk transfer, there is no fee to the customer. However, a bulk transfer is different from a normal transfer in that it does not add a year to the registration.
Some people have observed that there are names in their Registerfly control panels that are no longer registered at Registerfly. In the event of a bulk transfer, the registries will move the names that are actually at Registerfly to another registrar. It makes no difference whether Registerfly thinks it has the name or not.
Q. Why doesn’t ICANN bulk transfer the names now?
A. Like it or not, Registerfly is still technically accredited, pending the outcome of our lawsuit against them or their arbitration action. Because Registerfly is accredited, we cannot initiate a bulk transfer. When Registerfly’s termination is final, we will bulk transfer the names, either to a registrar suggested by Kevin Medina or one chosen by ICANN.
