The Regulation Amending the Regulation on Internet Domain Names (“Amending Regulation“) has been published in the Official Gazette and changes were made in the Regulation on Internet Domain Names Regulation (“Regulation“). The main purpose of the Regulation regulated by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is to regulate the procedures and principles regarding the management of internet domain names with the extension “.tr”.[1]

Changes have been made in the following titles regarding the structure of domain names within the scope of the regulation.

Renewal of Domain Name

In accordance with the Article 9 of the Regulation, the person who wants to renew the allocation of the domain name will be able to apply to one of the Registry Agencies (“RA“) specified on the website of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (“ICTA“) without a 3-month period, and the allocation period after renewal will be limited to five years.

Waiwer of Domain Name

Within the scope of the Article 10 of the Regulation, the ICTA will regulate the issues regarding the reallocation of the waived domain names, and in case the domain name is waived, the ICTA will not grant a refund.

Cancellation of Domain Name

Domain name allocations are made in two ways, with documentation or without documentation. In Article 11 of the Regulation, the determination of the invalidity of the information and / or documents submitted during the application with the documented method is regulated as a reason for the cancellation of the domain name allocation and ICTA has the cancellation authority.

Reallocation of Domain Name

Article 5 of the Amending Regulation has amended the Article 12 of the Regulation and prior the amendment no application request is received for the domain names available for reallocation for a period of three months, with the Amending Regulation no application request is received for the domain names available for reallocation for period of two months.

Dispute Resolution

An alternative dispute resolution mechanism, which aims to carry out the resolution process of disputes related to domain names through arbitrators or arbitration committees called the Dispute Resolution Service Providers (“DRSP“), has been regulated under the Regulation.


Duties and Authorities of ICTA and Registry Agencies Bodies

According to Articles 14 and 15 of the Regulation, (i) auditing RAs and DRSP (ii) enforcing the necessary administrative sanctions, including the termination of the activities of the RAs and DRSP and (iii) keeping the relevant decisions regarding domain name disputes up-to-date on the website by taking the necessary measures to protect the personal data are regulated among the duties and authorities of the ICTA. Similarly, the RAs are responsible for carrying out the court decisions and the arbitrator or arbitration committee decisions submitted to RAs by DRSP regarding the domain name disputes, and also responsible for keeping TR network information system (“TRABIS”)[1] and its backup within the borders of the country within the scope of Article 17.

[1] The regulation has entered into force on the date of publication in the Official Gazette dated April 20, 2021 and numbered 31460.

[2] According to Article 8 of the Regulation, “undocumented domain name allocations are the allocations for which the “first come, first served” rule applies. In the determination of the first come, the registration is taken as a basis when the domain name application reaches TRABIS. Documented domain name allocations are the allocations made following the submission of relevant information and / or documents to the RA by the applicant for the delivery of this information and / or documents to TRABIS. The domain names to be allocated with documentation are arranged in the annex of this Regulation. “

[3] In accordance with Article 12 of the Regulation, “if there is no request for renewal at the end of the period specified in Article 9 for renewal, the relevant domain name is opened for reallocation and the information that this domain name is opened for allocation is published on the website of the Authority.”