Domain names not renewed
A non-renewed domain name expires and becomes available for registration by a new owner. The process of making a domain name available again follows several preliminary stages in its life cycle.
Inactive sites due to forgotten domain renewal
For several weeks, only the domain name holder can renew it after the expiry date shown in the whois, but at a higher rate with the registrar.
This restoration period is known as the “Redemption Grace Period” (RGP). However, all services associated with domain names (e-mail, website, etc.) are deactivated if the domain name is in this redemption period.
In the past, the Hotmail e-mail service was inaccessible in 1999 due to a forgotten domain name renewal. The geolocation social media Foursquare.com and the Washington Post newspaper website Washpost.com have also been unavailable due to a domain name renewal oversight.
In January 2012, the 20minutes.fr newspaper website disappeared from the web because it forgot to renew its domain name with its provider. In spring 2014, TF1 forgot for the second time in five years to re-subscribe the domain name of its video platform Wat.tv, the 3rd most visited video site in France.
The lucky owners experienced the horrors of a service interruption, but thanks to the redemption period, they were able to reactivate their precious domain names.
Expired domain name registered by a new third party
If the domain name is not renewed during its redemption period, anyone can re-register the address.
In 2020, Système U companies won an out-of-court procedure against an expired cybersquatted domain name. A Super U store in Haute-Corse failed to renew an expired domain name that reappeared as a Chinese cybersquatted site for downloading pornographic video applications and online games.
The French government created the JaimeLesArtistes.fr website to promote the Hadopi law against illegal downloading. The Ministry of Culture didn’t see fit to renew it in 2009, much to the delight of an anti-Hadopi site which recovered it immediately after it fell back into the public domain.
In 2014, Besançon town council found itself in an embarrassing situation. It distributed USB sticks to CE2 pupils, with links to websites for downloading edutainment software. However, several of the links provided lead to adult sites, as the owners of the domain names had failed to renew them.
Expired domain names, the Eldorado for selling counterfeit goods
In Belgium, the Economic Inspectorate blocked 1,325 .BE or .EU websites selling counterfeit goods in the first half of 2016. In 2015, only 328 domain names were affected.
In an article for rtbf.be, the spokeswoman for the FPS Economy explains that the sites concerned were previously held by legitimate third parties for various activities (e.g. notary, restaurant…). The latter do not renew their domain names, which are automatically recovered by “backorder” systems. Expired domain names are used by Chinese counterfeiters who sell fake products via fraudulent online stores. The domain names now held by the counterfeiters benefit from the popularity of the old sites.
Do not register your competitor’s expired domain name
On February 2, 2016, a ruling by the French Supreme Court ordered the company “Cuivres et bois” to pay €15,000 in damages to its competitor “Les Vents du Nord”. Cuivres et bois” sells and restores wind instruments in the same town as its competitor “Les Vents du Nord”. On December 31, 2010, it purchased the domain name “lesventsdunord.fr” when it fell into the public domain, as Les Vents du Nord had failed to renew its domain name.
The court ruled that “Cuivres et bois”‘s unfair behavior had damaged the image of “Les Vents du Nord” in association with its competitor, by deliberately confusing the two companies in the minds of a normally attentive public. “Cuivres et bois” therefore “ contributed to diluting the power of the distinctive sign constituted by the Les Vents du Nord brand and domain name “.
Soldinames recommends checking that the domain name ordered for a backorder service does not correspond to any prior rights held by third parties. You can order a public domain watch service from Solidnames to recover an expiring domain name.
The SecURL service allows you to be alerted to changes in the whois status of a domain name, to detect forgotten renewals and/or domain name expiration.