The Estonian Internet Foundation's domain reform, which establishes an equal fee for all .ee domain owners, will take effect on July 5. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh/Baltic Reports
TALLINN — According to a survey, most Estonian companies are not aware of the re-registration requirement for a .ee domain name, part of the Estonian Internet Foundation domain name reform.
The Estonian Internet Foundation’s domain reform, which establishes an equal fee for all .ee domain owners, will take effect on July 5. The annual domain fee will be 285 krooni (€18) plus a 20 percent value-added tax. Once the new rules will be applied, those who already have a registered .ee domain and also those with a free website registered with the free pri.ee domain have to re-register their accounts. The new rules also allows one person to register multiple domains and foreigners to register a .ee domain, something previously restricted to Estonian citizens.
“The Internet and .ee ccTLD have an important role in the functioning of national economy,“ Marek-Andres Kauts, director of Estonian Internet Foundation told the media. “We have to act in accordance with the customs of developed world, in being accessible and open.”
Poor job informing businesses
The foundation has set a six-month transition period when the registrants can re-register their domains. All the registrants who have domains that were registered during the old regulation must choose a registrar and re-register their respectable domains or have their site taken offline.
However, a poll ordered by domain registration provider Zone.ee and conducted by a research agency Faktum & Ariko shows that more than half of those questioned did not know about the upcoming changes, even though 74 percent of the companies in the survey have a .ee domain or are planning on purchasing one. The poll also showed that only 37 percent of the questioned admitted that they are willing to pay the 285 krooni fee.
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Please note that the price 285 EEK is the registry fee and does not include VAT. With Estonian VAT (20%) the registry fee is 342 EEK.
This being a registry fee, means that registrars, who will actually be providing the registration services, will have to add their costs and margins to this price.