.EE domain registry Estonian Internet Foundation (EIS) makes weekly queries to the Estonian Business Register to compare the data of legal entities that have been deleted with the data of .EE domain holders. If it turns out that the legal entity that owns the domain has been deleted from the Business Register, the EIS will also start the deletion of the domain, because according to the domain rules, an .EE domain cannot have a non-existent owner.
The domain deletion process is a multi-step process, starting with the blocking of the domain name, which deprives the user of the possibility to renew the domain registration and change the registrar.
We will inform the contact persons associated with the domain of the blocking, and it will also include a reference to the date when the domain will begin to be deleted. As a rule, this is the same date as when the domain name was registered, which is also the expiry date of the domain in many cases, with the exception that for domains registered for more than one year, the start date of the deletion process is shifted to the current calendar year. For example, if a domain is initially registered until 12 December 2025, the deletion will start on 12 December of the current year.
In the event of a change of ownership of a domain that has been registered for more than one year, the EIS will also restore the original length of the domain registration!
Contact persons associated with the domain will be informed of the start of the deletion procedure. For the next 15 days, the domain will be active and usable, but registration renewal and change of registrar will continue to be blocked. At the end of the 15 days, the EIS will suspend the domain registration and the domain will be removed from the zone for 30 days, i.e. the domain will not be active. At the end of this period (45 days), the domain will be deleted and will be put up for a domain auction, which will last for 24 hours and may be acquired by third parties.
Read more about the domain auction here.
In order to avoid losing a domain name, the successor of a deleted legal entity or a new owner resulting from a merging can submit a request for a change of the domain owner within the 45 days before the expiry of the domain name! However, it is advisable not to leave this to the last minute!
How to change domain owner?
In case of a deleted company, the domain owner can only be changed in the following cases:
- The company was merged with another company and a respective entry exists in the e-business register
- The domain was transferred or given away to another company or individual and the transfer was formalized in writing prior to deletion of the company. Document must be digitally signed. If no such document exists, it’s not possible to carry out the change in the ownership.
You can start with the change of a domain ownership here.
The authorization code is required in order to change the owner of .EE domain. Information on how to request an authorization code can be found here.
If the order has been submitted, then please send us an entry from the e-business register or a domain renunciation/transfer request to info@zone.ee.
If it’s not possible to change the owner of the domain in the conditions described above, please inform the Estonian Internet Foundation, who will initiate the domain deletion prodcedure.
The validity of the domain owner data is regularly checked by The Central Registry of .EE domains (Eesti Interneti SA). It’s important to keep your domain contacts up to date.