auDA, the organisation that sets the rules for Australian domain names, has accepted recommendations from its Licensing Rules Review that will change eligibility requirements for .com.au and .net.au domains.

https://www.auda.org.au/public-impact/have-your-say/policy-panels/au-licensing-rules-review-2025/

Specifically Recommendation 2, which deletes subparagraph (f) from section 2.4.4 (2) of the .au Licensing Rules.

This decision strikes a direct blow to around  2.7 Million .com.au and .net.au domain registrations out of 3.4 Million, 80% of the namespace, that will now require changes just to remain eligible to renew and keep those web addresses.

Under this new policy, every domain registered will strictly require a registered Business Name that exactly matches each domain name, whereas previously having a single active ACN or ABN was sufficient.

If this change goes ahead:

-Creates a new tax on small business, costing Australian businesses OVER $500 MILLION immediately to fix current registrations, and over $200 million every year to maintain.

-2.7 Million existing domains names will need a New Business registration from ASIC or a new Trade Mark from IP Australia.

-2.7 Million existing domains will require a Correction done at the Registrar to the new Business Name or Trade Mark.

-Registering new .com.au or .net.au will have the same extra costs, will require a unique Business Name or Trade Mark to register the new domain.

-The confusion caused will result in many existing domains to be ineligible for renewal and will results in many small business to lose their existing domains.

-Severely damages trust in .com.au and places an impossible burden on major Registrars (like GoDaddy, VentraIP, Webcentral, Help.com.au, CrazyDomains etc.) to assist hundreds of thousands of clients and process massive numbers of Change of Registrants.

-Many existing domain owners will be vulnerable to lose their domains, as anyone performing a WHOIS lookup will find that 4 in 5 domains are no longer compliant. This opens the door for mass submissions of domain deletion complaints that the Registrars and Regulators are not capable to process, allowing long-established domains to be deleted from real end users with existing websites.

You can check if your domain is no longer eligible under the new proposed policy here: https://www.help.com.au/au-eligibility

We call on auDA to:

-Stop the implementation of Recommendation 2 and ask the auDA Board to keep Section (f) of the policy.

-Stop forcing unnecessary costs and operational damage onto Australian business owners and domain holders.

-Maintain and protect the integrity and stability of the .com.au and .net.au namespace.

Please sign this petition to make your voice heard, protect small businesses, and put a stop to these harmful changes to Australia's domain name infrastructure.