AuDA says Web Access transferred over 500 domain names from one registrar, Melbourne IT to another, Enetica, without the go-ahead from the owners of the domains. The names have been transferred back to Melbourne IT by Ausregistry, acting on instructions from auDA.
However a spokesman for Web Access says the company was trying to comply with policy.
"We thought we were doing everything by the book," he told ZDNet Australia . "We weren't aware the regulations had changed".
The spokesman said they had modified the administrative contact e-mail record because it was instructed to do so by Melbourne IT -- at that time there were problems in the industry with dodgy renewal notices being sent to registrants. Web Access didn't have access to the interface it needed to change the e-mail address, so it transferred the names to Enetica.
"Up until auDA changed the rules we were allowed to do that," the spokesman said.
When the company, which says it did contact the registrants, albeit in a manner not in line with the auDA regulations, received complaints from a couple of annoyed customers, Web Access says it actually referred them to auDA itself.
The regulator's chief executive Chris Disspain says the incident serves as a warning to resellers who want to bulk transfer their customers from one registrar to another.
"They must comply with the requirements of auDA's transfers policy," he said. "The policy safeguards the right of registrants to make an informed choice to transfer their domain name to another registrar, even where their domain name is managed by a reseller".
