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Latest update on Bottle Domains

Posted by Jo Lim on 29 October 2009

On 25 September 2009, the Supreme Court of Victoria handed down its decision in the legal proceedings between auDA and Australian Style Pty Ltd trading as Bottle Domains.

Justice Hargrave found that auDA was entitled to terminate Bottle Domains' registrar accreditation in April 2009, because Bottle Domains breached its obligations to auDA under its Registrar Agreement by failing to immediately notify auDA of a security breach affecting its systems in 2007. The full decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria is available here .

The orders of the Supreme Court of Victoria were stayed until 23 October 2009, as Bottle Domains had indicated that it wishes to appeal the decision.

Bottle Domains has now lodged an appeal with the Court of Appeal.

On 23 October 2009, the Court of Appeal ordered that, until it has heard and decided on Bottle Domains' appeal, auDA cannot give effect to its decision to terminate Bottle Domains' registrar accreditation.

This order was given on the basis of, amongst other things, the following undertakings given by Bottle Domains to the Court of Appeal:

  1. Bottle Domains will not cause or permit or participate in a transfer of any of its registrants to another registrar except in accordance with auDA's published policies (for additional background, please click here);
  2. Bottle Domains will not solicit or cause or permit resellers to solicit new registrants of .au domain names, except for –
  • registrations via Bottle Domains' automated on-line registration process effected by existing customers or resellers, or persons referred to Bottle Domains' website by such customers; and 
  • renewals or additional registrations by existing customers of Bottle Domains; and
  • Bottle Domains will, at its own cost, use all due diligence to procure and provide to auDA within 14 days of the order, and every 60 days after that, a report from Vectra Corporation as to:
    • whether Bottle Domains has implemented, and continues to implement, all the recommendations made by Vectra Corporation in its report dated 18 February 2009; and
    • whether there have been any material changes to Bottle Domains or any part of its systems that could, in Vectra Corporation's opinion, have an adverse effect upon the security of Bottle Domains or any part of its systems.