The Amending Communiqué has entered into force at the date of its publication. Pursuant to the Amending Communiqué, the Internet Domain Names Communiqué (“Communiqué”), which was prepared by the Information and Communications Technologies Authority (“ICTA”) within the scope of Article 14, Article 15, Article 16 and Article 17 of the Internet Domain Names Regulation (“Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette dated 21 August 2013 and numbered 28742, has been amended. Details on the relevant amendments are summarized below.

Background

Pursuant to the Amending Communiqué, Article 3 (Definitions and Abbreviations), Article 5 (Application), Article 7 (Commencement of Operations and Renewal of Application), Article 11 (Data Storage and Sharing), Article 13 (Other Obligations), Article 14 (Internet Domain Name Application), Article 15 (Data to be Transmitted to TRABİS), Article 16 (Consideration of the Complaints of Internet Domain Name Owners), Article 19 (Guidelines), Article 21 (Payments to the ICTA), Article 22 (Sale, Transfer and Waiver), Article 23 (General Provisions), Article 24 (Transfer), Article 25 (Rejection of Transfer), Article 27 (First Registration of the Domain Names in “a.tr” Format), Article 28 (Introduction of New Second Level Internet Domain Names), Article 30 (Open Bidding), Article 32 (Information and Documents Request), Article 33 (Subdomain Names by Documented Registration), Article 34 (Lists of Non-Registrable and Limited Registry Domain Names), Article 35 (Supervision and Sanctions), Provisional Article 1 (Transition from Documented Registration to Undocumented Registration) and Provisional Article 3 (Authorization Code of Current Internet Domain Names) have been amended.

New Provisions Introduced by the Amending Communiqué

• As per the amendment in Article 3 of the Communiqué, the security deposit required in the registration application will be referred to as “assurance”. Applicants will have to provide a letter of guarantee from a bank for the said security deposit. In addition, the authorization code will be the password provided by .tr network information system (“TRABİS”) instead of a Domain Registrar (“DR”).
• Pursuant to the amendment in Article 5 on “Application”, the letter of guarantee will be returned to the applicant if the applicant does not re-apply by remedying the inaccuracies of the application upon notification of the ICTA of such inaccuracies. 
• With the amendment in Article 7 on commencement of operations and renewal of application, the DR will no longer be required to commence operations within 15 days after its name is published under the DR List on the website of the ICTA. The operation certificates of DRs, who did not commence operations within 6 months as of this date or did not operate within the scope of its operation certificate in the following period for 6 months or more after commencing operations, will be cancelled and their assurances will be considered as revenue. 
• As per the amendment in Article 11, the ICTA can determine rules regarding the back up periods, storage durations and conditions of the information and electronic documents that the DR is obliged to store. The obligation to back up at least hourly has been lifted. 
• With the amended Article 13, the DR will have to notify the ICTA of the alterations in the information and documents submitted for the application to the ICTA within 10 (ten) business days. In addition, the DR will be obliged to (i) be in compliance with the regulations on the protection of personal data and other relevant law, (ii) keep the system integrated to TRABİS and its back-ups within the borders of the Republic of Turkey, (iii) submit its income statements including the net sales amounts regarding internet domain name transactions of the previous year certified by tax offices, chartered accountants or sworn-in accountants to the ICTA every year until the end of May.
• Pursuant to the amendment in Article 14 of the Communiqué on internet domain name (“IDN”) application, the subjects about which the applicant should be informed by the DR during the admission of the application have been changed. Accordingly, the applicant should be informed regarding the Law on Protection of Personal Data and applicable law. In addition, the applicants are categorized as real person applicants and legal person applicants, and the information required for the application to DR are listed for each category. On the other hand, the obligation to control the accuracy of, and to transmit to TRABİS, the documents required for documented registration determined by the Information and Communications Technologies Board (“Board”), the obligation to verify the payment regarding the IDN registration and the obligation to verify the submitted e-mail accounts have been lifted. 
• As per the amendment in Article 19 of the Communiqué, the obligations of the DR regarding the guidance service have been lifted, instead the ICTA will provide such service through TRABIS. The scope of information within the guidelines has been changed. Explicit consent of the real person Internet Domain Name Owner (“IDNO”) will be required for the DR to share the personal data of such person in guidelines.
• With the amended Article 21 of the Communiqué, upon the termination of the operations of a DR, if the transfer of all IDNs which are involved in transactions with the relevant DR to another DRs costs more than the assurance; the excess amount will be paid by the DR whose operations are terminated.
• Pursuant to the amendment in Article 22 of the Communiqué, the DR will transmit the necessary information and documents to TRABİS regarding the sale and transfer of the IDN and the ICTA will consider such application. The DR will inform the IDNO about the decision of acceptance or rejection of the ICTA. With the amendment, the consequences of the waiver of IDN have been changed. 
• As per the amendment in Article 23 of the Communiqué, the transfer fee determined by the ICTA as one-year registration fee has been lifted. In addition, the registration duration of the IDN will not be changed after transfer. 
• With the amended Article 24 of the Communiqué, Transmitter DRs can no longer reject the transfer requests. 
• Pursuant to the amendment in Article 25 of the Communiqué on rejection of transfer, TRABİS can reject the transfer request by receiver DRs if certain other conditions are met according to the ICTA. The situation, where the end of registration duration of the IDN is within less than 15 days, will not be a reason for rejection. 
• With the amendment in Article 27 of the Communiqué, open bidding after the trademark owner priority following the first registration of the domain names in “a.tr” format will only be possible if the Board deems it appropriate. The same rule will be applied in cases where new second level internet domain names are introduced under the amended Article 28 of the Communiqué. Pursuant to the amended Article 30 of the Communiqué, the Board will determine the fees and the rules and procedures of the open bidding. 
• As per the amendment in Article 34 of the Communiqué, all high level domain names in the world and second level domain names under “.tr” are excluded from the List of Non-Registrable Domain Names. The ICTA may update the List of Non-Registrable Domain Names and List of Limited Registry Domain Names if necessary.
• The amended Article 35 of the Communiqué has changed the duties and authorities of the ICTA on supervision and sanctions. If a DR under supervision does not comply with the provisions, the ICTA can terminate the operations of such DR.
• Pursuant to the amendment in the Provisional Article 1 on the transition from documented registration to undocumented registration, if the Board deems it appropriate before commencing the undocumented registration, open bidding can be executed in compliance with the rules and procedures determined by the Board. 
• With the amendment in the Provisional Article 3, a temporary DR operation certificate, valid for 6 months from the application date until the date where TRABİS commences its operations, can be issued for registry operators wishing to be a DR. New provisions introduced within the scope of the temporary DR operation certificate are listed in detail under the amended Provisional Article 3.
• Annex including the sample DR Application Form has been updated and the updated version of the annex shall be considered.