The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has revealed the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP), which sets guidelines for how domain registrars should notify their customers about their expiring gTLD registrations.
In order to notify their customers effectively registrars will need to send an expiration notice one month before the expiration actually happens and the another one a week before expiration.
If a registration is not renewed or it is deleted by the registrar, an additional expiration notice must be sent to the registrant at expiration (RAE) with instructions for renewing the registration should they choose to.
These notifications of expiration may be presented in a number of languages, but they must at least be provided in the language of the registration agreement and must be communicated in a way that does not require any affirmative action to receive it – email is suggested as a good method of communication.
Registrars also need to interrupt the DNS of an expired gTLD if it has been deleted within eight days of expiration. Interrupting the DNS will certainly get the RAE’s attention if they hadn’t already realised the domain registration was expiring.
A redemption grace period of 30 days must also be offered after the registration is deleted, during which time the registration may be restored at the RAE’s request by the registrar who deleted it. Sponsored gTLD registries do not apply to this, however.
ERRP also offers some additional advice for registrars that encourage best practices. One of which is for them to store a secondary email address that is not connected with the domain name itself so that upon the eventual expiration and DNS interruption, reminders can still reach the registered name holder.
It is also advised that registrars suggest that registered name holders mark their email address as a safe sender, so important emails will not get filtered as spam.
All ICANN-accredited registrars and gTLD registries will need to comply with the ERRP by August 31st 2013.