Summary

  • ICANN lists Nominet's request to add Bulk Transfer After Partial Portfolio Acquisition to .cymru and .wales as under review.
  • Its proposed terms give affected domain holders at least 15 days' written notice. Once the batch moves, there is no grace period to reverse that batch transfer.

A registrar can sell part of its domain book without selling the whole shop. That is the transaction behind Nominet's new ICANN request. The registry operator wants to offer bulk transfer after a partial portfolio acquisition for .cymru and .wales. ICANN's tracker lists the 19 October request as ICANN Review. The paperwork is on the desk; the service has not been approved for these two domains.

The proposed lane has two entrances. An accredited registrar may acquire a slice of another registrar's names through a purchase, merger or similar deal. A newly accredited registrar may also take the names it previously served as a reseller. Both registrars must consent; the incoming registrar must certify that the ordinary Transfer Policy does not already cover the move. At the end, it becomes the sponsoring registrar. For the person holding a domain, the name remains theirs while the company responsible for sponsoring and servicing it changes.

The outgoing registrar must give every affected holder written notice at least 15 days before completion. That notice must explain the change to the public registration-data record and name the incoming registrar's customer-support and technical contacts. The existing customer contract must already permit a transfer on acquisition. The expiry date survives the move. The service is built to move a book of accounts, not sell new time on each registration.

Then comes the sentence with teeth: the standard amendment language gives no grace period to reverse the transfer once it is complete. Names already in pending transfer, pending deletion, redemption or restoration status cannot join the batch. The registry must reject a request made to dodge fees. These are real boundaries, but the clock that matters most to an ordinary holder runs before the handover.

Nominet's form says registrars are interested and predicts no competition effect. Those are its answers to ICANN, not measured outcomes. ICANN still has to review the proposal and execute an agreement amendment before this lane opens. Until then, the practical question is simple: if a registrar changes hands in pieces, will the 15-day letter reach the people whose domains travel with it?

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