The Nominet, which manages the UK ccTLD .UK, will not get out of the "turbulence zone" in any way. It has already survived a vote of no confidence and the resignation of the former leadership, and the stormy elections of a new one has not ended to this day. Now financial problems may also be added. Lawyer Ian Mitchell, hired by one of the nominees for a seat on the Nominet Board to review the legal correctness of the election process, reported a highly unexpected side finding. It turns out that the registry has been collecting membership fees for decades, without legal grounds, according to Domain Incite.
Of course, we are not talking about malicious intent and fraud, the whole thing is a banal oversight, but the fact remains. When the non-profit company Nominet was founded, the procedure for collecting membership fees for the first year of its existence was established. However, in the future, this procedure should have been fixed in the charter - provided that at least 75% of all members vote for it. But the vote was never taken: it was probably simply forgotten about. However, from a legal point of view, this means that for the past 25 years Nominet has been receiving membership fees without being entitled to it.
Ian Mitchell notes that this offense is subject to the statute of limitations adopted in British law. However, if the members of the Nominet deem it necessary to file a lawsuit, they are quite able to claim the return of all contributions for at least the last 6 years, which will also amount to a very sensitive amount - about 1.5 million pounds sterling. True, so far none of the members has announced such an intention, but given the “black streak” that the registry has fallen into, it is clearly not worth excluding such a scenario. Nominet management has not commented on the situation at the moment.
