Do we have any "internet" lawyers on BB?

[Buffy Summers]

Hoping there's possibly someone on here with knowledge of the legalities of domain names. I've owned a domain name for 5 years, and it's now apparently been marked as "premium" by the Registry and they want to charge me $1000 instead of $13 to renew my registration. Anyone know if there's anything to be done to fight that?

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Hoping there's possibly someone on here with knowledge of the legalities of domain names. I've owned a domain name for 5 years, and it's now apparently been marked as "premium" by the Registry and they want to charge me $1000 instead of $13 to renew my registration. Anyone know if there's anything to be done to fight that?

As far as I know they can do that. It happened with an old company of mine. From my understanding they can only do it when the domain comes up to re-register. For instance, if you paid for 5 years they cannot raise it after two. Again, that's only from my understanding. But once the length of the contract ends they can charge whatever they want. Try looking at another location to register, if you can. I know places like Go Daddy and (not sure if they are still around) Host Gator are bad at that.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Another thing you could do to fight it is go to a domain evaluation site. They can look at the domain name, traffic, ad revenues, etc, and give an approximate value. If they come back with a low value it may give you something to argue with, in that your domain, isn't as premium as they make it out to be.

 

[Buffy Summers]

lol "appraised value: 0"

 

[Skanky Vamp]

lol "appraised value: 0"

That doesn't always mean anything, just depends on if there is a high traffic volume of one of the words. Like alot of things with CBD in the domain name are listed as premium. You could do some searches (try godaddy as they are horrible for it) for other domains with a name or names of the one in question.

It can tell you if a specific name is valued. I believe it can also show the value of that name.

 

[Name the Stars]

1,000? That sounds extreme. I would try to contact the registry. If not, I would try a different domain local. That seems ridiculous.

 

[Buffy Summers]

The fact of the matter is that any registry could do that to anyone, at any time.

1,000? That sounds extreme. I would try to contact the registry. If not, I would try a different domain local. That seems ridiculous.

I contacted my registrar (namecheap) who said it came from the registry not the namecheap themselves and it was unlikely that anyone else would charge different. Not that I'm not going to try that but...

I can change domains but the fact of the matter is, it's basically theft. It would be one thing if I registered it as a premium domain. They're changing the terms mid step.