SMEs have just four weeks to pre-register for .au URLs as business groups fear for those left behind

Small businesses have four weeks to register a new .au domain name before those URLs become available to the general public, Australia’s domain name authority has warned, days after industry groups criticised the scheme’s “rushed” introduction.

Since March this year, businesses have been free to pre-register for new .au domain names, providing an alternative to their existing ‘.com.au’, ‘.net.au’, or ‘.org.au’ URLs.

The Australian Domain Authority (auDA), the institution overseeing the .au domain name licensing scheme, this week reminded businesses they can pre-register for .au domains matching their existing URLs until September 20, 2022.

From October 3, .au URLs that were not pre-registered will be available for anyone to use.

In theory, this means a member of the public could soon register a URL using a business’ name and the .au tag, without having any ties to the company itself.

The .au initiative has received significant interest so far, said auDA CEO Rosemary Sinclair.

“auDA is delighted by the strong response to .au direct from priority applicants,” she said in a statement this week.

“We received more than 35,000 registrations in the first 24 hours, nearly 80,000 registrations in the first week and over 200,000 registrations to date.”

auDA held a webinar on Tuesday, further outlining the potential benefits of switching to a .au URL.

But with more than 2 million small business registered in Australia, many of which that operate websites, the small business community is concerned .au pre-registration will close before businesses are even made aware of the change.

Alexi Boyd, CEO of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), said last week that bad actors could imitate small business online by sniping their .au domain names.

“We are concerned that if priority registration isn’t extended, cyber criminals could purchase .au domain names and create ‘shell sites’ or ‘ghost sites’ impersonating legitimate businesses, potentially using online booking forms to gather information and/or money from the business’ clients,” she said.

COSBOA also fears members of the public could soon acquire .au URLs and effectively hold them for ransom, forcing business to pay compensation for .au URLs matching their names.

While COSBOA supports the .au initiative, it says its implementation should be pushed back another 12 months.

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) Bruce Billson — who already acts as an intermediary between businesses over URL disputes — has previously warned of “catastrophic” risks for businesses that don’t act now.

Like COSBOA, Billson this month called on auDA to push back its timeframe by 12 months.

“The auDA rejected my request to extend the direct match priority allocation period for small businesses with existing domain names beyond 20 September, so all I can do is try and make sure small and family business are not caught short when it comes to the shortened .au domain name,” he said.

Billson also called the public awareness campaign around the .au implementation “less than impactful”, and feared “massive consequences of the .au introduction has not been sufficiently explained by auDA”.

Businesses looking to register for .au priority status can do so here.