ICANN has traditionally that there is some confusion that is within the registrar community that is concerning the circumstances from the people who register can deny any transfer requests that are pursuant to the Inter Registrar Transfer Policy. The purpose of the Notice to Intent to Issue and Advisory  regarding the Inter Registrar Transfer Policy is to let the parties that are interested parties have until October 19, 2007 to enter comments at retransfers-comments at icann.org. Posted comments can be viewed at the ICANN Forum.

The idea of the proposed advisory is to help ICANN accredited registrars to help them understand that under the Transfer policy that the registrars are not allowed to deny a domain name transfer request on the premise of a nonpayment of the fees for pending or future registration periods during the Auto Renew Grace Period. Also a registrant change to the WHOIS information of a site is a reason for denying a transfer request.

This system was developed through ICANN’s policy process and the Transfer Policy was approved in a unanimous vote by ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organization or the GNSO and the Board of Directors. After consulting with many different parties the Transfer Policy was adopted in 2004. The Policy does give domain name holders a standardized process for transferring their domain names from one ICANN accredited registrar to another, simply upon request. All ICANN accredited registrars and unsponsored registry operators must comply with all of the Transfer Policies.

There are over 900 ICANN accredited registrars that are now operating in the marketplace, they offer many different services and the consumers have a wide array of options for registration services from full services packages that have web hosting option to bargain packages with very minimal customer service. If the Transfer Policies are not used properly then these features and options cannot be enjoyed by users. The Transfer Policy has proven to be very reliable and valuable for consumers who wish to enable the freedom of choice they have in their domain names from ICANN accredited registrar to another. Some transfers are denied that are not based on what is called the 9 reasons that are listed in the Transfer Policy. When denials are made without the 9 re4asons, confusion and abuse of the rules come about.

For the benefit of consumers the registrars and registries, the ICANN issued a proposal to clarify the limited circumstances under The Transfer policy does allow its registrars to deny the request for any transfer the choose. Comments about the proposal are definitely encouraged.  ICANN is aware of the GNSO’s Transfers Working Group and is currently working on several issues related to the Transfer Policy. Their intention is to recommend modifications to the GNSO Council. The Purpose of the proposed advisory is to explain the existing policy.