Under Pressure auDA Reverses Misguided Course on .AU Domain Names But Only for Current Registrants

According to a report in Smart Money magazine this morning, auDA, the administrator of Australia'a .au top level domain and parent of second level versions like .com.au, .net.au and .org.au, has backed off a plan that could have cost their own registry over two million registrations. As we told you last month, AuDA passed a rule saying registrants of .com.au and .net.au domains would have to have a trademark or company name matching the domains they held in order to keep them. With the cost of getting a new business registration or trademark and maintaining it running into four figures many would have lost names they bought in good faith years ago. As you would expect that idea unleashed massive blowback again auDA that has apparently produced a change - but only a partial one.

According to the Smart Money report,  auDA has decided to grandfather existing registrants in by giving them an exemption from the rule, but any new registrants of .com.au and .net.au 

domains would have to meet the onerous new requirement. We haven't yet seen details on how this would affect buyers of existing .au domains in the aftermarket. Would they retain the exemption or be considered a new registrant? If it is the latter it would be a major blow to the ability of existing registrants to sell assets they bought in good faith and have held for years. 

While the suggested changes have created an uproar, the auDA site states "No final decisions have been made on the proposed changes to the .au Licensing Rules or their implementation. Public consultation is planned to open later this year, and auDA encourages all interested parties to participate and continue to provide their feedback."

(Posted October 21, 2026)   

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