Under the terms of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, ICANN must give any registrar 15 days written notice prior to termination. On Friday, ICANN officials sent a letter informing RegisterFly that its license to operate had been revoked. RegisterFly will cease to operate as an ICANN-accredited registrar on March 31.
“Terminating accreditation is the strongest measure ICANN is able to take against RegisterFly under its powers,” ICANN CEO Paul Twomey said. “ICANN has been frustrated and distressed by recent management confusion inside RegisterFly. I completely understand the greater frustration and enormous difficulty that this has created for registrants.”
Before the end of the month, RegisterFly will be required to turn over to ICANN all necessary transfer information so that registrants who want to leave the company can do so.
Twomey said RegisterFly does not need to wait until the end of the month to facilitate the transfers.
“They can request ICANN to approve a bulk transfer immediately,” he said. “I call on RegisterFly to act in the interests of registrants and seek such a transfer from us straight away.”
On March 9, a U.S. District judge in Newark, N.J., ended the management battle at RegisterFly, ruling that ousted CEO Kevin Medina, not current CEO John Naruszewicz, was in charge of the company.
The two dueling CEOs had been locked in litigation over the company since Feb. 12.
At the time of U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan’s ruling, Medina said he was confidant that he could turn the company around. Naruszewicz told reporters after the ruling that the company would “implode within days.”
RegisterFly had been overcome with customer complaints, ranging from the company’s refusal to transfer domains to widespread allegations that the registrar over billed for its services.
ICANN said it plans to hold a forum discussion regarding reform for accreditation policy and process at its upcoming meeting in Lisbon March 26-30.