At its 6th annual meeting held on August 18, 2017, the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI, for its acronym in Portuguese) – a multisectoral entity composed of members of the Federal Government and the private sector – passed Resolution No. 31/2017, amending Resolution No. 08/2008 and thereby modifying the rules on the release process of “.br” domains. The main purpose of the release process – which already existed before – is to make available domain names that had been rendered inactive due to non-renewal, cancellation requested by the owner or faulty documentation of the owner.
The new resolution reduces the time periods to apply for released domains and changes the frequency with which release processes will be conducted – from three times a year to once a month. This shows that the new resolution has the clear intention of expediting the release of domains to interested parties.
However, the most significant change concerns the creation of an extra stage for the resolution of disputes. Prior to the new resolution, a domain undergoing a release process with more than one interested party interested in purchasing it would not be released; instead, it would go back into the list of domains that would undergo the subsequent process. Under the new resolution, whenever there is more than one interested party, an auction takes places and the highest bidder wins the domain.
