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NEWS RELEASE

DENIC Obtains ICANN Accreditation as New gTLD Data Escrow Agent

Unprecedented: Full Conformity with Applicable European Data Protection 
Legislation and Non-US Place of Jurisdiction
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Dear Sir or Madam,

With effect from 6 June 2017, the managing organisation of Germany's country 
code .de on the Internet, DENIC, is accredited as an Escrow Agent under
the new gTLD program of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and 
Numbers (ICANN) and thus officially authorised to operate a back-up storage
service for the business data of domain registries (Registry Data Escrow, 
RyDE).

Following ICANN’s approval, DENIC now is one of nine so-called Authorized New 
gTLD Data Escrow Agents. Three of these are resident in Europe. However,
DENIC is the sole agent who, by special agreement with ICANN, is able to 
offer its escrow service both in compliance with the applicable European data
protection regulations and in a manner that allows the place of jurisdiction 
for the contractual relationship between the registry customer and DENIC
to be chosen freely by the parties.

After the prior consent on framework conditions reached in March this year 
with regard to DENIC's escrow services for registrars (Registrar Data
Escrow, RDE), the recent agreement between ICANN and DENIC on the contract 
DENIC is going to conclude with gTLD registries in the future represents
another milestone. This agreement was the final step towards DENIC’s 
accreditation. The compliance process to verify that its systems meet all the
technical and operational requirements for providing the RyDE service had 
been successfully completed by DENIC already last year.

As aimed at by DENIC and analogous to its recently started Registrar Data 
Escrow Service (RDE) [1], the individual registry customer can decide upon
contract conclusion whether potential disputes between them and DENIC shall 
be resolved by a German state court or by a Swiss court of arbitration.
ICANN, who is the third party beneficiary to the contract, can enforce their 
rights vis-à-vis DENIC only in front of a Swiss arbitration court. There
are no rules as to the applicable law in the contract. In the case of German 
customers, it will thus be governed by German law.

As a neutral, not-for-profit cooperative, DENIC is neither a registrar nor a 
gTLD (backend) operator, and thus does not compete with the potential
customers of its Escrow Service. More than 20 years of experience in 
operating one of the largest TLD zones worldwide (.de) with over 16 million 
DUM
today make DENIC one of the leading experts in domain management, at an 
international level. State-of-the art cryptography and multiple redundancies
safeguard the secure transmission and storage of all domain registration 
data. Storage will be exclusively in data centers located in Europe (i.e. in
Germany and the Netherlands), in compliance with European data protection 
regulations. Besides, DENIC's certifications according to ISO/IEC 27001:2013
ISMS and ISO 22301:2012 BCMS standards guarantee maximum information security 
and availability.

Background Information on Data Escrow

Data Escrow is the act of storing data and information with a neutral third 
party in order to be held in custody by them. This measure is meant to
ensure that business activities can be continued by an independent party in 
case of failure or insolvency of the registry or registrar, on the basis
of the data stored as an external back-up copy. Domain data is also rated to 
be such type of relevant business data. The Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) therefore requires all its accredited 
registrars and registries to regularly deposit a copy of their generic domain
(gTLD) registration data with an independent escrow agent. In case a 
registrar or registry is no longer in the position to provide its services, 
these
data can then be handed over to a designated partner to be defined by ICANN 
and registrants are enabled to prove their holdership of a domain.

Due to the more stringent German and European data protection regulations, 
German and European registries have a growing desire to avoid transmitting
their customers' data to the USA or any place outside the German/European 
judicial area. Like DENIC's RDE service for registrars already in place,
DENIC’s new RyDE service now also offers gTLD registries, in particular those 
domiciled in Europe, a perfect solution to meet their escrow obligations
towards ICANN within the European legal framework by using an escrow agent 
based within the European Union, and makes it thus unnecessary for them to
transfer their data to a country outside of the EU.

----

[1] 
https://www.denic.de/en/whats-new/press-releases/article/denic-starts-official-operation-as-data-escrow-provider-for-icann-accredited-registrars/


Kind regards

Stefanie Welters
Corporate Communications
--
DENIC eG | Kaiserstraße 75 - 77 | 60329 Frankfurt am Main | GERMANY
E-Mail: presse AT denic.de | Fon: +49 69 27235-274 | Fax: -235
https://www.denic.de

Angaben nach § 25a Absatz 1 GenG:
DENIC eG (Sitz: Frankfurt am Main). Vorstand: Helga Krüger, Martin 
Küchenthal, Andreas Musielak, Dr. Jörg Schweiger
Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Thomas Keller. Eingetragen unter Nr. 770 im 
Genossenschaftsregister, Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main