A regional court in Bonn, Germany, has issued a ruling on the proceedings ICANN initiated against the German domain registrar EPAG. It was reported earlier that the German company refused to store administrative and technical contact information of domain name registrations, believing that it might violate the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which has recently come into full effect. At the same time, the collection and storage of this data is a requirement for registrars and registries that work with ICANN.
Interestingly, after having talks with ICANN, EPAG reconsidered its own decision. This confirms speculation that the proceedings were initiated upon mutual agreement of the parties. ICANN did not aim to sue the German registrar, but hoped that the court would issue a ruling which will become a precedent and will help clarify how the GDPR requirements and Whois rules can coexist, since ICANN strives to preserve the protocol. If this was the case, the hope was unfounded. The official website of ICANN reports that the German court rejected the injunctive relief towards EPAG. This means that in principle, registrars and registries are free to stop collecting the administrative and technical contact information of registrations. On the other hand, the court did not indicate that collecting such data would be a violation of GDPR. Thus, a precedent has been set, but the issue of the coexistence of GDPR and Whois is still unclear.
