Skip to main content
All CollectionsDomainsDomain Ownership
Registrant Agreement and Email Verification
Registrant Agreement and Email Verification

This article describes the verification process for newly registered domain names.

Garrett Saundry avatar
Written by Garrett Saundry
Updated over a week ago

The ICANN Registrar Agreement contains certain requirements that must be fulfilled before a domain Registration can take place.

The agreement is applicable to all Top Level domain registrations (i.e. all domain names, with the exception of country-code related domains, such as .CA)


Registrars must enter into an Agreement with all Registered Name Holders

This Agreement can be entered into via the purchase/registration process on our website if the individual performing the registration is also the Registered Name Holder (also known as the Registrant). If the individual performing the registration is not the Registered Name Holder (Registrant), then the option to have the Agreement emailed to the Registrant is also available.


Registrars must verify the email address of the Registered Name Holder, as well as Account Owner.

All Registered Name Holders as well as Account Owners email addresses must be verified as being correct and functional. This is accomplished by sending an email to each and requiring an affirmative response or action.

NOTE: As applicable, both of the above requirements must be fulfilled before a new domain will become manageable within your account.


Registrant Contact Information Upkeep

The ICANN Registrar Agreement contains a requirement regarding the maintaining of accurate Registered Name Holder Information.

The ICANN Registrants' Benefits and Responsibilities also that Registered Name Holders (Registrants) are obligated to provide accurate contact information at the time of their domain registration.

Registrants are also required to keep this information current and correct on an ongoing basis.

Registrars (such as Webnames.ca) must re-verify Registrant email addresses should the email address ever be updated or otherwise changed. Therefore, the following steps and actions are required upon the update of either Account or Registrant email address

  1. The updated email address will receive a verification email.

  2. A verification code appearing in the email then needs to be entered into a page on our website. The link to this page appears in the email.

  3. Starting from the time the update is made, Registrants have 15 days to perform the verification steps.


Registrars are required to act, should it be learned that Registrant's contact information is no longer correct.

Registrars can become aware of incorrect contact information via a number of methods, which include, but are not limited to, email notification bounces (e.g. a domain or service renewal notice sent to the Account Owner or Registrant from Webnames.ca is returned as non-deliverable) and WHOIS accuracy complaints.

In either of the above scenarios, our actions include sending email verification emails and/or placing phone calls to the Registrant all in an effort to obtain and otherwise verify the contact information of the Registrant.

NOTE: If the contact information of the Registrant (specifically the email address and/or phone number) cannot be verified within 15 calendar days, the Registrar is required to disrupt the functionality of the domain.

This is a mandatory requirement of the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA and is applicable to all Registrars, Registrants, and domain extensions that fall under ICANN jurisdiction.


In the case of Webnames needing to disrupt a domain name, it will be forwarded to a purpose-specific parking page.

The functionality of the domain can be restored by either:

  1. Following the instructions within any one of the previously sent verification emails

  2. Updating the Registrant information via the respective Webnames account, and then following the instructions within the subsequent verification emails

  3. Contacting our Support Department, and performing verification on either the Registrant phone number or email address manually

Did this answer your question?