Romania plans to introduce yearly renewal fee for .ro Internet domain names

Owners of Romanian internet domains .ro are likely to pay an annual fee starting next year, to renew ownership of their domain, should a recent Government proposal be enforced. Currently owners of Romanian domain names only pay a one time registration fee, which is of around EUR 50. With around 700,000 Romanian domain names currently active, the state is hoping to raise more money annually, as well as solve the situation of the many unused Romanian domain names. The strategy is similar to the one used for .com domains, where a yearly renewal fee is applied. If the current owner fails to pay the fee, the domain is suspended and can be re-sold. The Government decision features a renewal period of three months from when the decision will be published in the Official Gazette, which applies to all registered .ro domains within the previous 24 months. The renewal can be done for one year, or for two years, with payment in advance. The authorities, via the The National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics (ICI), which manages and sells the .ro domains, need to get more revenues to cover maintenance costs, data security costs, as well as database management costs. ICI offers a free public service which allows finding info about the owner of a .ro domain (Whois) on rotld.ro. On the same site the institute sells domain names. A .ro domain name currently costs USD 51.26 plus the VAT of 24 percent, when bought directly from ICI. Romanian domain names can also be bought via hosting companies, which act as re-sellers, and sell the domain names together with the hosting packages. editor@romania-insider.com