

They are bound by the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with ICANN, and by their agreements with the registries. Registrars are organizations accredited by ICANN and certified by the registries to sell domain names. In this case, the service provider is the domain name registrant, not the end customer. In some cases, a person or organization who does not wish to have their information listed in WHOIS may contract with a proxy service provider to register domain names on their behalf. A domain name registrant is responsible for procuring or hosting his or her own name server if the registrar does not offer this service or he or she has opted out of the registrar's service. In addition to registering the domain name, domain name registrants also need to have their domain names listed on name servers in order for that domain name to be reachable on the Internet. Domain name registrants have certain responsibilities that are incorporated into these terms and conditions like payment of registration fees and submission and timely update of accurate data.

The domain name registrant is bound by the terms and conditions of the registrar with which it registers its domain name, for instance adhering to a certain code of conduct or indemnifying the registrar and registry against any legal or civil action taken as a result of use of the domain name. In order to do so, the domain name registrant will usually apply online to a domain registrar or one of their resellers.


The diagram below illustrates the main functions of the parties that are usually involved in the process.Ī domain name registrant is the person or organization who has registered the domain name.
