.au Licensing Rules Review (2025)

The .au Licensing Rules set out the requirements and processes that govern the .au domain, including who can hold a .au domain name licence and what name they can register.

auDA periodically reviews the .au Domain Administration Rules: Licensing (.au Licensing Rules) so they reflect community expectations and remain effective over time.

In September 2025, the auDA Board appointed an external Policy Advisory Panel to undertake a review of the Rules. The Panel was tasked with carrying out consultation with the multi-stakeholder community to ensure the .au Licensing Rules continue to support ongoing trust and confidence in .au.

Read the Terms of Reference for the Review.

Before the Review commenced, auDA conducted public consultation on an Issues Discovery Paper seeking input from the community on key issues related to the .au Licensing Rules.

The feedback provided during this Issues Discovery Paper consultation helped to develop the Terms of Reference for the Policy Advisory Panel and reflect key areas for potential improvement identified by the community.

The Terms of Reference enabled the Panel to consider and make recommendations on other related issues raised during the consultation phase of the Review.

The Panel led two phases of consultation, which included in-person events around the country, virtual town halls, written submissions and stakeholder outreach and meetings. Phase 1 ran from September 2025 to March 2026 and examined key issues related to the Rules. Phase 2 ran from June to July 2026 and sought feedback on the Panel’s Draft Report and its proposed recommendations.

auDA supported the Panel’s consultations by inviting participation from .au members and stakeholders across government, consumer groups, business groups and chambers, industry associations, the academic sector and the domain name industry, and sharing regular updates on the auDA website and social media. Consultations were open to the public.

All written submissions are available on the Phase 1 and Phase 2 consultation webpages and all Listening Reports (which set out feedback received from virtual town halls and in person events) are available under the "Panel documents" section below.

The Panel Chair presented the Final Report to the auDA Board at its August 2026 meeting. The auDA Board resolved to approve the Panel’s Recommendations in the Final Report in-principle and directed auDA Management to prepare an Implementation Plan that takes into account the impact of the Recommendations.

Read a summary of the Panel’s recommendations and the Panel’s complete Final Report to learn more.

The Panel’s recommendations are set out in its Final Report. A summary of recommendations is also available.

auDA is preparing an Implementation Plan that will take into account the impact of the Recommendations, including timeframes for when they take effect. Alongside the Implementation Plan, auDA will draft changes to the .au Licensing Rules that align with the Panel’s recommendations. 

The draft .au Licensing Rules and an explanatory guide will be published on the auDA website for public consultation, giving stakeholders and the community an opportunity to have their say on how the changes give effect to the Panel’s Recommendations, before the updated .au Licensing Rules are approved by the Board.

Timeframes for the changes to take effect have not been finalised. auDA will prepare an Implementation Plan and draft changes to the .au Licensing Rules.

When prepared, the draft .au Licensing Rules and an explanatory guide will be published on the auDA website for public consultation, giving stakeholders and the broader community an opportunity to have their say on how the changes give effect to the Panel’s Recommendations.

auDA will provide regular updates in the coming months, including key dates, to support the transition.

Domain monetisation refers to the practice of registering a domain name with the sole purpose of selling, leasing or holding the domain name to generate revenue. This includes using the domain name to generate revenue from advertising links on a website associated with the domain name.

Based on the Panel’s recommendation, monetisation will continue to be allowed in the com.au, net.au and .au direct namespaces.

You can read more about domain monetisation on the auDA website.

Under Recommendation 2, the option to use the name of a service, goods, event, activity or premises to meet allocation rules for com.au and net.au will be removed from the .au Licensing Rules.

Other options to meet requirements to hold a com.au or net.au domain name licence will be retained, under Clause 2.4.4 (2) paragraph (a)–(e), including the domain being:

• A match or acronym of the person’s registered name (including a company, business, statutory, personal, partnership or trust name)
• A match of their Australian trade mark
• A match to or an acronym of a name of a Related Australian Body Corporate.

A match means that the domain name being applied for is identical to one, some or all of the words or numbers used in the person’s registered name. The domain name must use the words or numbers in the same order as they appear in the person’s registered name and must not include any additional words or numbers. The full definition of ‘Match’ is set out in section 1.4 of the .au Licensing Rules.

For example, if a business name is “auDA domain names”, possible domain names include: audadomainnames.com.au, auda.com.au, audadomain.com.au, audanames.com.au.

The change is intended to strengthen the connection between a domain name and the registrant’s officially registered name, making eligibility and allocation requirements clearer and to support trust and confidence in com.au and net.au for the benefit of the Australian community. Note that under Australian law, you must register a business name if you run a business in Australia and are not trading under your own name.

A timeframe for this change to take effect has not been finalised. auDA will provide regular updates in the coming months, including key dates.

auDA is working on an Implementation Plan and a timeframe for this change to take effect. These have not been finalised, so there is no need to take action yet.

auDA will provide regular updates in the coming months, including key dates.

Once the updated rules come into effect, in some cases registrants may be required to register a business name that matches their com.au or net.au domain name licence.

If required, businesses can apply on the ASIC website. ASIC's current fees to register an Australian business name are $47 for one year or $108 for three years. Under Australian law, you must register a business name if you run a business in Australia and are not trading under your own name. Applicants can register business names online directly with ASIC using a simple form.

auDA will provide regular updates including timelines for when it’s appropriate to evaluate whether any action is needed by com.au and net.au domain name licence holders.

auDA is developing an Implementation Plan that will consider the number and types of existing registrations that may be affected, as well as any appropriate transition arrangements. This will depend on how the rule changes give effect to the recommendations.

auDA will carry out public consultation on how the draft rules give effect to the recommendations.

There will be no change to the .au direct Priority Allocation Process.

The Panel supports maintaining the current process. This means that the contested .au direct domain name will only be allocated either by agreement between the parties with active priority applications, or when there is only one active priority application remaining.

Read more about the Priority Allocation Process.

Reserved names are domain names that are not available for public registration. They are only able to be registered in certain circumstances according to strict criteria, outlined in Section 2.6 of the .au Licensing Rules.

Under the current .au Licensing Rules, auDA is required to publish a list of all the Reserved Names which pose a risk to the integrity, stability and security of the .au, once they have been blocked. The Panel supported the removal of the requirement as publishing the list may create risks to operational security.

The Panel supported maintaining transparency by publishing information related to decision making processes for Reserved Names.

Based on the Panel’s recommendations:

• The complaints process of the .au Licensing Rules will be expanded to include complaints arising from audits performed by auDA. This reflects that audits are an important part of auDA’s compliance activities, will support trust in the audit process and effectiveness of the audit framework.
• The scope of ‘affected person’ will be broadened to allow a person who can demonstrate an adequate interest in a domain name to escalate a complaint while maintaining an effective and proportionate review process.
• There will be an increase to the timeframe a person has to request a review of an auDA decision to cancel a domain name. This will increase from 48 hours to 7 days.

Based on the Panel’s recommendation 8, the .au Licensing Rules will be updated to clarify requirements for registrars to contact .au registrants in the case of suspension, cancellation or expiry of a domain name. This is intended to better support .au registrants and avoid instances where renewal or cancellation notices are missed.

Under Recommendation 6, .au domain name licences will also be able to be renewed, for a maximum of 5 years from the date of renewal, anytime during the lifetime of the licence prior to the licence expiry date. This will change from the current renewal window of within 90 days prior to the licence expiry date, providing registrants a longer period to renew their licence and also take advantage of any special pricing offered by registrars. It also aligns renewal timeframes with generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) to support registrars operating across Australian and international namespaces by reducing different business processes.

The Panel recommended that the current approach to scams under the .au Licensing Rules be retained. It also recommended auDA continue to work with the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) to continually refine the approach to dealing with scams in the .au and that the next Licensing Rules Review reconsider scams, noting the evolving nature of online scams.

auDA takes a range of activity to combat scams in .au and the broader ecosystem. More information is available on the .au blog.

Based on the Panel’s consultation and recommendation, com.au will remain dedicated to commercial entities with a connection to Australia.

The Panel noted that com.au is a trusted commercial space in Australia and recommended against creating a non-commercial exception. Instead, the Panel recommended auDA adopt a flexible approach to facilitate affected registrants to transition to another namespace for which they remain eligible once they end their commercial operations and no longer meet com.au eligibility.

auDA will develop educational information to support registrants transitioning to another namespace within the .au domain (e.g. transitioning from forexample.com.au to forexample.au).

The .au Licensing Rules will be amended to include information about how registrants can use role-based descriptions when registering a .au domain name. Registrants can do this by providing role-based contacts (such as CEO, IT Manager), using a business address or PO Box, and using a business phone number rather than a personal phone number.

This will help limit publication of personal information via the WHOIS service while preserving a way for identifying and contacting a registrant. This would reflect information already available in the Registrar Rules.

When prepared, the draft .au Licensing Rules and an explanatory guide will be published on the auDA website for public consultation, giving stakeholders and the community an opportunity to have their say on how the changes give effect to the Panel’s Recommendations.

auDA will provide regular updates in the coming months, including key dates, to support the transition.

• 23 September: the Panel Chair attended the monthly online registrar briefings held by auDA
• 24 September: the Panel conducted a lunchtime session open to the public at the Australian Internet Governance Forum in Adelaide.

• 14 November: the Panel delivered a presentation on the review at the auDA Registrar Summit
• 24 November: the Panel opened consultation to receive written submissions
• 27 November: the Panel conducted an introductory town hall webinar to provide an opportunity for the public to learn about key issues that have been identified by the Panel as part of previous public consultation and the process to get involved and make submissions. Watch the recording.

• 11 December: the Panel Chair held a second virtual town hall to explore some of the key issues identified as part of the Review to date, following from an introductory town hall held in November. Watch the recording of the second virtual town hall. 

• 26 February: the Panel conducted an in-person workshop in Canberra to gather community input and share perspectives, with insights gathered to inform the Panel's draft report on the .au Licensing Rules Review.

• 2-3 March: the Panel hosted two virtual town halls in March to discuss issues identified during consultation to date and receive feedback through Q&A and polls
• 19 March: the Panel conducted an in-person workshop in Sydney to gather community input and share perspectives, with insights gathered to inform the Panel's draft report
• 23 March: the Panel conducted an in-person workshop in Brisbane to gather community input and share perspectives, with insights gathered to inform the Panel's draft report
• 25 March: the Panel conducted an in-person workshop in Melbourne to gather community input and share perspectives, with insights gathered to inform the Panel's draft report
• 31 March: the Panel closed its consultation, which ran from 24 November 2025, to accept written submissions. 

• 17-18 June: the Panel hosted two virtual town halls in June to discuss the findings of the Draft Report and receive feedback through Q&A and polls
  

• 6 July: the Panel conducted an in-person workshop in Melbourne to gather community input and share perspectives on the Draft Report, with insights gathered to inform the Panel's draft report
• 7 July: the Panel conducted an in-person workshop in Sydney to gather community input and share perspectives on the Draft Report, with insights gathered to inform the Panel's draft report