Australia plans to end generic .com.au names, and a lobby group says New Zealand doesn't work that way
auDA, which runs Australia's .au domains, plans to stop people holding .com.au and .net.au names just because the name describes something they sell. CircleID reported that the board gave the change in-principle approval in August. Nothing is enforceable yet, and there is no start date.
The rule on its way out is the "close and substantial connection" test. For more than 25 years it has let registrants hold a name tied to goods, services, events, activities or premises, not only their own business name. Once it goes, CircleID says, only two routes remain: the domain matches the registrant's registered business name, or it exactly matches an Australian trademark.
Domain Name Wire published some hypothetical examples from IP attorney Erhan Karabardak: a bakery at applepies.com.au, a mortgage broker at mortgagebrokersydney.com.au and a school fete site. Each would need a matching business name or a trademark.
As of July there were 3.3 million .com.au registrations and 0.2 million .net.au registrations, according to Domain Name Wire. Estimates of how many depend on the test vary widely. David Warmuz, chief executive of Trillion, told Domain Name Wire his company had confirmed "well over one million" would be affected, and he expected the figure could pass two million. Ecommerce News reported him citing registrar audits that suggest up to 2.5 million of roughly 3.47 million names. The Internet Commerce Association (ICA), which is fighting the change, used a lower estimate of up to one million. At the A$47 annual business name fee, it says that would add more than A$47 million a year in costs.
The ICA says the plan is out of step with the rules in New Zealand, the UK, Singapore and other OECD countries, Ecommerce News reported. On the New Zealand comparison the ICA has a point. Under most .nz second-level names nobody checks eligibility, and only a few are moderated. A Wellington plumber can register a descriptive .co.nz without proving anything. Across the Tasman that option is set to shrink.
New Zealand firms selling into Australia need to check which eligibility rule each of their .com.au names is held under. If a name matches a product or service rather than a registered business name in Australia, the only way left to keep it is an exact-match Australian trademark. CircleID notes that registering a trademark with IP Australia takes months, not days. auDA has been strict with foreign holders before. In 2021 it stopped foreign entities relying purely on an Australian trademark application unless the domain matched the application exactly, CircleID reported.
The ICA's case against the change goes further than the overseas comparison. Its statement calls the decision "a serious mistake, made on a divided recommendation and a thin evidentiary record on harm, cost and transition". According to the ICA, four of the seven members of the Policy Advisory Panel voted to delete the rule. Two voted to keep it, and one abstained before later backing that minority. Karabardak, a former auDA chair, was in the minority. The ICA also says auDA management rejected similar restrictions in 2019 because it found no evidence that domain investment was harming .au.
The panel made ten recommendations, and Domain Name Wire reports that the board approved all ten. The first says monetisation of .com.au, .net.au and .au names should still be allowed.
The ICA wants any change to apply only to new registrations. It wants existing names protected permanently, including the right to transfer them. Without that, an investor could sell a descriptive .com.au only to a buyer who already qualifies to hold it, which shrinks the market for the name.
auDA has more steps to take before anything changes. Domain Name Wire reports that it will write an implementation plan that accounts for the impact on registrants, then draft changes to the .au Licensing Rules. CircleID says auDA may run another round of public consultation, and that auDA has promised updates on timing and transition arrangements over the next few months. The ICA says it expects the draft rules to go out for consultation. On 25 September auDA posted a blog titled ".au Licensing Rules Review recommendations: status and next steps".
One related change is already in force. Since 20 May, registrars have checked that the ABN or ACN behind a .com.au or .net.au name is active before they allow a renewal, CircleID reported. If a New Zealand company lets its Australian business number lapse, it can lose the domain at renewal, whatever happens to the review.