ASIC receives complaint about auDA auction - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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ASIC receives complaint about auDA auction

By James Pearce and Vivienne Fisher, ZDNet Australia
April 23, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/ASIC-receives-complaint-about-auDA-auction/0,139023166,120264791,00.htm

A West Australian businessman has complained to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission over auDA's handling of the auction of .au generic domain names.

According to the proprietor, the business name condom.com.au was registered in June 1999 with what was then the Ministry of Fair Trading in Western Australia. He is now complaining to Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) because his application to bid in the auction for condom.com.au was refused on a technicality.

Correspondence from auDA identified the problem as a failure to fill out the -State or Territory of Registration" part of the application form.

-I applied in March, prior to the closing date, but the system accepted my application with out giving me a chance to print it out," the businessman told ZDNet Australia. -I wasn't given a reference number to keep track of it either."

Despite lodging an application before the January 31 closing date, notification of the ineligibility was not sent until April 15. According to the businessman, an appeal resulted only in a message from the auDA CEO confirming the ineligibility of the application and stating that no further correspondence would be entered into.

The complaint to ASIC cited the practices enforced by auDA in the administration of the domain name application as -unfair and unlawful". It goes on to say that -due to a technicality, auDA have refused our application on a matter that clearly does not have any bearing whatsoever on our eligibility to apply and have the opportunity to bid in fair market auction for this domain."

When contacted by ZDNet Australia Chris Disspain, CEO at auDA, said he was unable to comment on individual cases. More generally, Disspain added that people needed to follow the instructions in filling out the form, and provide the details required.