ICANN terminates two registrars over compliance and DNS abuse failures
ICANN has terminated the accreditation of two domain name registrars after finding unresolved compliance failures, including inadequate responses to phishing reports and failures involving registration data services and fees.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has terminated the accreditation agreements of two domain name registrars following unresolved violations of their contractual obligations.
Estonia-based Fewmoretaps OU, which operates as Trustname.com, will lose its accreditation on 11 September 2026. ICANN said the registrar repeatedly failed to respond promptly and appropriately to reports of DNS abuse, including phishing. The company received four formal breach notices between June and August before ICANN issued the termination notice.
According to ICANN, some domains managed by Trustname.com were used in phishing campaigns that impersonated financial institutions and a government tax agency. The registrar introduced measures to address the problems, but ICANN found that these steps had not been sufficiently effective. ICANN also reported a significant increase in the proportion of Trustname-sponsored domains associated with phishing reports during the period under review.
A second registrar, IPIP Inc., will have its accreditation terminated on 13 September. ICANN said IPIP failed to resolve several compliance issues, including operating a required Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) service, making registration-data escrow deposits, paying accreditation fees and providing a process for requesting access to non-public registration data.
For both companies, ICANN will use its De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure to transfer the domains they manage to other accredited registrars.
Separately, ICANN issued a breach notice to Beijing Zihai Technology Co., Ltd. on 26 August. The company remains accredited, and that case has not resulted in termination.
The actions come as ICANN continues to increase scrutiny of how registrars respond to DNS abuse and meet the technical and administrative obligations set out in their accreditation agreements.
