auDA moves to kill off Bottle Domains

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 02 December 2010 16:19

IT Policy - Regulation

auDA's long running battle with domain registry Australian Style, which trades as Bottle Domains, is drawing to a close with AuDA seeking to have the company wound up for failing to pay almost $400,000 in legal costs awarded to auDA after its successful legal action against Bottle Domains.

auDA said: "Following auDA's successful proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2009, auDA's costs of the trial payable by Australian Style Pty Ltd were assessed and fixed by the Court at $373, 312.49. auDA served a statutory demand for payment of that amount which Australian Style Pty Ltd has failed to comply with."

auDA said it had filed an application with the Supreme Court of Victoria seeking a winding up order against Australian Style and had notified the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) of the application. The hearing of auDA's application is listed for 2 February 2011.

It added: "This action poses no risk to registrants who formerly registered .au domain names with'¦Bottle Domains, as these names were transferred to auDA in July 2010 as part of the termination of Australian Style Pty Ltd's Registrar Accreditation."

auDA's pursuit of Bottle Domains created considerable controversy and confusion in the industry. In early 2009, auDA moved to terminate Bottle Domain's registrar accreditation for what it claimed was a serious breach of its obligations under the registrar agreement.

However Bottle Domains was able to obtain a temporary order in the Supreme Court of Victoria to have this termination overturned pending a full hearing. By this time auDA contacted the holders of all domains registered through Bottle Domains telling then that they would need to transfer their domain to another registrar before their expiry date. Following the issue of the temporary order it was forced to rescind this advice.

Its actions drew stinging criticism from the head of Netregistry, Larry Bloch, who accused auDA CEO, Chris Disspain of "[setting] another dangerous precedent of overbearingly harsh and ill-considered action to the detriment of registrars, domain name holders and the Australian domain name system in general."

He suggested at the time that, were the final decision of the court to go against auDA, it could well be bankrupted. Given the size of the legal bill He may well have been right. He pointed out at the time that auDA's budget summary of 08/09 showed expenses running about $400,000 in excess of income of $3.525m.