Transparency Report

Compared with the total number of .nl domains -- over six million -- the number of times we intervene is very small. Nevertheless, we think it's important to be open and transparent about our interventions, because they can have major implications for those involved. On this page, you'll find details about how often we have felt obliged to take action or share information, of our own accord or in response to legal proceedings. The information here is updated quarterly. If you've got a question about our intervention activities, drop a line to support@sidn.nl.

Notice and Take Down (NTD) Procedure

We remove a domain name from the zone if we are told about website content that is obviously criminal or unlawful, and if everyone who has more control over the content than we do has been asked to take it down, but hasn't.

Dispute resolution

We offer a dispute resolution service for settling cases where someone believes a .nl domain name infringes their rights. A dispute can arise if, for example, a domain name is like someone else's brand name or trading name, or the name of a government body. The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center handles the disputes for us. Their decisions are published on the WIPO website and on domjur.nl.

Cancellation by SIDN under Article 16

We can unilaterally cancel a domain name's registration at 30 days' notice. We're allowed to do that under Article 16 of the General Terms and Conditions for .nl Registrants. The registrant is told about our decision in a notice sent to their administrative contact's e-mail address. We cancel a registration only if the registrant fails to fulfil their obligations to us. The most common reason for cancelling a registration is that the registrant details provided are incorrect.

Prevention of irregularities under Article 18

We try to prevent registration-related irregularities as far as possible. With that in mind, we introduced new rules in 2019, allowing us to delete a domain name from the zone if irregularities aren't corrected within 3days. The rules are set out in Article 18 of the General Terms and Conditions for .nl Registrants. We can take action if a domain name's registrant or registrar can't show that registration data is correct within 3 days. Or the registrant or registrar may themselves disable the name or cancel the registration when we point out an irregularity. We use our powers under Article 18 mainly when a domain name is being used for a fake webshop.

Provision of full contact details

Using the Whois tool on our website, anyone can look up certain details about a registered .nl domain name, such as the e-mail address of the registrant's administrative contact. However, our database contains other contact information as well, which isn't publicly available. Anyone with a legitimate reason for seeing that information can ask for it by filling in a form on our website.

Complaints and Appeals

We have a Complaints and Appeals Board (C&AB), which is an independent body that a .nl registrar or registrant can go to if they want to appeal against a particular decision made by SIDN. An appeal can be made if, for example, we decide to temporarily or permanently delete a domain name from the zone. Or if we close a registrar's account. The C&AB also handles complaints made by people who believe that a domain name's registration undermines public order or decency. The C&AB's rulings are published on www.cvkb.nl.

Phishing and malware

We're dedicated to fighting cybercrime like malware and phishing in the .nl zone. On the basis of suspected abuse reports received via a third-party feed, we contact the registrants, hosters and registrars of the domain names involved. We ask them to investigate and to take action if abuse is confirmed. If the suspected abuse continues, we send out reminders. If that doesn't get a result after up to 66 hours, we do our own checks. Where our checks confirm abuse, we remove the domain name from the zone, then notify the registrar. Once the malicious code has been deleted, the registrar can re-link the domain name's name servers, so that the domain name is re-included in the .nl zone.