ICANN Contractual Compliance Metrics March 2025 to February 2026
Top Five Registrar and Registry Complaints by Volume
| Registrar | MAR 25 | APR 25 | MAY 25 | JUN 25 | JUL 25 | AUG 25 | SEP 25 | OCT 25 | NOV 25 | DEC 25 | JAN 26 | FEB 26 | % of Total Received |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Received | 1,070 | 1,625 | 1,030 | 1,500 | 1,437 | 1,653 | 1,737 | 2,023 | 1,672 | 2,049 | 1,446 | 1,540 | |
| Top 5 Complaint Types* | |||||||||||||
| DNS Abuse and Other Types of Abuse | 486 | 536 | 600 | 1,068 | 960 | 728 | 938 | 1,246 | 1,162 | 1,438 | 750 | 912 | 58% |
| Transfer | 184 | 167 | 137 | 155 | 184 | 198 | 198 | 208 | 177 | 202 | 205 | 235 | 12% |
| Registrar Data Escrow | 51 | 645 | 48 | 53 | 52 | 241 | 252 | 271 | 55 | 57 | 59 | 43 | 10% |
| Registration Data Inaccuracy | 96 | 45 | 48 | 37 | 44 | 239 | 136 | 82 | 43 | 85 | 109 | 106 | 6% |
| Generic Registrar | 75 | 77 | 70 | 70 | 76 | 80 | 70 | 56 | 88 | 132 | 170 | 89 | 6% |
* Top Five Complaint Types make up at least 88% of Received Complaints
| Registry | MAR 25 | APR 25 | MAY 25 | JUN 25 | JUL 25 | AUG 25 | SEP 25 | OCT 25 | NOV 25 | DEC 25 | JAN 26 | FEB 26 | % of Total Received |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Received | 87 | 121 | 123 | 146 | 113 | 103 | 84 | 60 | 72 | 91 | 114 | 70 | |
| Top 5 Complaint Types* | |||||||||||||
| Registry Data Escrow | 9 | 77 | 64 | 82 | 63 | 47 | 20 | 15 | 20 | 42 | 63 | 26 | 45% |
| DNS Abuse | 46 | 31 | 45 | 26 | 38 | 32 | 41 | 24 | 38 | 41 | 32 | 24 | 35% |
| Zone File Access | 14 | - | 1 | - | 5 | 2 | 14 | 7 | 5 | - | 7 | 1 | 5% |
| Generic Registry | 4 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 5% |
| Code of Conduct | 12 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 5 | - | 4% |
* Top Five Complaint Types make up at least 90% of Received Complaints
Explanations of Obligations Addressed within each Complaint Type (and source of obligation):
Transfer: Registrar requirements related to the transferring of domain names from one registrar to another, and to modifying Registrant information (Transfer Policy)
Abuse: Registrar obligations to investigate and respond to abuse reports, maintain abuse reports records and provide them to ICANN, and publish abuse contacts and description of abuse procedures on the registrar's website (Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) Section 3.18))
Registration Data Inaccuracy: Registrar requirements to take reasonable steps to investigate and correct claimed Whois inaccuracies (RAA Section 3.7.8) and comply with validation/verification requirements (RAA Whois Accuracy Program Specification (“WAPS”))
Domain Renewal/Redemption: Registrar requirements related to the renewal/redemption of domain names, providing notice to registrants regarding domain name expirations, and providing domain renewal information on the registrar's website and in its registration agreement (Expired Registration Recovery Policy and Expired Domain Deletion Policy)
Registrar Data Escrow: Registrar requirement to escrow generic top-level domain (gTLD) registration data on a schedule, under the terms, and in a format specified by ICANN (RAA Section 3.6)
Registry Data Escrow: Registry requirement to comply with the registry data escrow procedures (Registry Agreement (RA) Section 2.3 and Specification 2)
Zone File Access: Registry requirement to provide third-party zone file access (RA Specification 4, Section 2.1)
Abuse Contact Data: Registry requirement to publish on its website abuse contact details, including a valid email, mailing address, and primary contact for handling inquiries related to malicious conduct in the top-level domain (TLD) (RA Specification 6, Section 4.1)
Generic Registry: Any registry requirement in the relevant RA or Consensus Policy with no dedicated complaint form. A requirement will not have a dedicated complaint form if, historically, the number of complaints received pertaining to the requirement has been very low (sometimes non-existent).
Code of Conduct: Registry requirement to abide by the Code of Conduct established in their RA which includes conducting internal reviews at least once per calendar year to ensure compliance with the Code of Conduct (Specification 9).
Reserved Names: Registry requirements to exclude certain domain names from registration in generic top-level domains (Base RA Specification 5 and provisions related to names reservation for gTLDs not in the Base RA).