Domain registrars fined $1.95m for domain name deception

The Federal Court has penalised two related companies, Domain Corp Pty Ltd and Domain Name Agency Pty Ltd (the Domain Companies), for scamming Australian consumers and small business owners out of a total of $2.3 million.

During a period spanning from November 2015 to April 2017, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had received a multitude of complaints against the two Domain Companies. During this period, over 300,000 unsolicited notices were sent to businesses requesting renewal of domain names.

However, while these notices appeared to be renewal notices for existing domain names, they were actually notices for the registration of new domain names. This resulted in many businesses unwittingly signing up for a new domain name ending in a ".net.au" or a ".com" suffix that the business may not have needed or wanted. The Court noted the fine print disclaimer contained in these notices was easily missed by someone reading the notice.