Hospitality boss says losing website address has 'massively' affected business

A Douglas-based hospitality business says it's seen a dip in trade after its established website address was transferred to another company.

Refuge Bistro & Bar, on Athol Street, is calling for an urgent review of the way .im domain disputes are handled.

It comes after the company lost control of refuge.im, which it had owned since 2021, despite paying a renewal for the domain to the service chain managing it.

It was then transferred to another party outside of the UK. 

Operator Robert McAleer said: "We paid for the domain to be managed and renewed, we had clear evidence of our use of the Refuge name, and we still lost the domain.

"We are a local business not a domain expert.

"We relied on the people managing the domain and now we are left trying to explain to customers why our established web address no longer belongs to us.”

He told Manx Radio it's a 'deeply frustrating' situation:

Chris Naylor is from TechCentre Group and is assisting Refuge Bistro & Bar.

He said: "This raises a serious issue for every Isle of Man business using a .im domain.

"If a local business can lose a domain after payment has been made and still be told the dispute process cannot help, then the process is not giving enough practical protection to real local businesses."

Chris told Manx Radio this issue raises wider questions about Island protection of domains:

Refuge Bistro & Bar has temporarily moved to refuge.co.im.

It’s asking relevant authorities to review the case.

The Department for Enterprise has responded saying: 

"The .im domain framework includes protections for registrants where a domain has accidentally expired. In these circumstances, once a domain reaches its expiry date, associated services may stop working, but the domain is not immediately released for registration by another party. A 30-day protection period is in place to allow the registrant to identify the issue and take corrective action.

"However, there is an important distinction between accidental non-renewal and an explicit deletion request. Based on the information available to the Department, this case appears to involve a domain managed through a reseller and the domain appears to have been explicitly deleted by that reseller, rather than simply allowed to expire. Such action can arise for a number of reasons, including non-payment, customer instruction, contractual issues or other account-related matters. On that basis, the matter appears to fall outside the accidental-expiry protection mechanism.

"Where a party believes a .im domain has been abusively registered, there is an established dispute resolution process. Domain name disputes are considered independently by the Designated Official to ensure a fair and impartial process, in accordance with the NIC.IM Dispute Resolution Procedure and the relevant registration terms and conditions. Any party affected by a decision has a right of appeal under that process.

"The Department recognises the importance of domain names to local businesses, and the disruption that can be caused where access to a domain is lost. We would encourage all businesses to ensure their domain ownership, renewal and account arrangements are kept up to date, particularly where they use third-party resellers. Any business that believes a domain has been cancelled, deleted or transferred in error should engage promptly with their reseller or NIC.IM.”