OVH, a French registrar, has asked ICANN to provide them with the ability to opt out of parts of the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement. OVH asked ICANN to waive parts of the RAA that would require it to keep hold of registrant Whois data for two years after the registrant relations have ceased.
The new RAA including the part about data storage has been accepted by ICANN last year. Data privacy concerns have since been a critical issue for European registrars. To resolve this issue, ICANN told registrars that they would be able to opt-out of these rules if they provided a written opinion from a local jurist opining that to comply would be contrary to the existing law. Such document, as requested by ICANN, was provided by OVH. The company asked for the requirement to be reduced to one year, based on a French law and a European Union Directive which prohibit keeping hold of customer data for more than a year.
If OVH request would be granted, it would apply “to similar waivers requested by other registrars located in the same jurisdiction”, ICANN said. It’s not yet clear if by jurisdiction, ICANN means France or the whole EU.
