auDA says existing .com.au holders keep current rules under reform

auDA says existing .com.au holders keep current rules under reform

19 October 2026: auDA, which runs Australia's .au domain, has said that existing com.au and net.au licences will continue under the current allocation rules even if it tightens them, after a proposal that alarmed small businesses holding descriptive names. "No current registrant of a domain name licence will be affected by the proposed changes to the allocation criteria," it says, and the draft rules will go to public consultation later in 2026.

Not yet independently verified. auDA gives no consultation dates and does not say how the tighter test would apply to new registrations; the estimate of how many names the original proposal would have touched comes from press reporting. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What the panel recommended

The trigger is the final report of an external Policy Advisory Panel, which recommended that the allocation criteria for com.au and net.au be tightened so that a name has to match a personal name, a registered name or a registered Australian trade mark. Today a name can also qualify through a close connection with the holder's services, goods, events, activities or premises, which is how names built on a trade and a town have been allowed. An exact match would still not be required, and auDA stresses that the eligibility criteria for the two namespaces are not changing.

SmartCompany, which covered the reversal, reports that the original proposal was announced on 6 September and that James Richardson, founder of Optimising, estimated 2 million to 2.7 million names could have been affected. The small business council COSBOA had asked for existing registrations to be protected.

What happens next

auDA is preparing three documents for the consultation: a marked-up version of the .au Licensing Rules, a proposed plan for moving to the updated rules, and an explanatory guide. It says no final decisions have been made, and that any changes its board approves would be reviewed by an external Policy Advisory Panel within five years.

Who should take part

The open question is new registrations. auDA's statement protects names already held but does not spell out how the tighter test would work for a business registering a descriptive com.au name after the change. Web agencies that register names for clients, and companies planning new brands, product lines or regional sites under .com.au, are the ones whose plans depend on that answer, and the consultation is the place to press for it.

Sources

• auDA: Update on .au Licensing Rules Review, 19 October 2026
• SmartCompany: Small businesses keep existing .com.au URLs after auDA policy backtrack, 21 October 2026