Auction Rules
Утверждено: Решением Генерального директора ООО «Координационный центр Регионального домена Республики Татарстан»
(Приказ № 03/TATAR от 10.11.2014)
Дата начала действия: 10 ноября 2014 года
Дата окончания действия:
С изменениями:

1. Introduction


a. This document is intended to provide potential .TATAR auction participants with all the information they may need to know to successfully participate in .TATAR auctions. This document is an unofficial translation into English. The Russian version of the Auction Rules shall govern.


b. Any questions about auctions may be directed to admin-auction@domain.tatar.


c. Note that all times associated with auction scheduling are in GMT/UTC (Greenwich Mean Time/Universal Time Coordinates). Times displayed in the online auction interface are also displayed in GMT/UTC. Times provided in email notifications may be expressed in a different time zone, and if so, will be identified accordingly. The auction bidding page provides a reference for converting GMT to other time zones.


d. For more information on the .TATAR launch plans, participants are encouraged to visit the registry website at http://domain.tatar.


e. IT SHOULD BE SPECIFICALLY NOTED that the cost of a domain name registration does not include Auction fees. It is the right to the domain name registration, rather than the domain name itself, which constitutes a subject of an Auction (lot). The cost of the domain name priority/premium registration for applicants is determined by registrars, while the right to the domain name registration for which different applicants submitted more than one application is set at an auction in accordance with the procedures established by the present Rules.



2. Auction Account


a. When you first submit your application to an accredited registrar, you will have a number of steps to follow before your domain is subject to auction. The registrar will conduct a series of validation steps including verifying your eligibility (as applicable to the specific launch period you are participating in). Once your application has been “accepted” it will be compared to other applications to determine if any are for the same domain name. If there are none, then your name will be allocated to you by the registry, if you are a Sunrise, Limited Registration or Landrush applicant. If there is at least one other “competing” Sunrise, Limited Registration or Landrush application, then your name will be placed in auction.

 

b. The data you provide in the domain application as submitted by you to your registrar (which may not necessarily be your whois data) will be used to automatically establish your auction account. Note, this information is kept confidential and is only used to establish the data needed to communicate with you in the auction process. Your registrant email address is used as the primary login ID.


c. Contact information that you have provided in the domain application as submitted by you to your registrar will also be used by Pool.com to contact you for ongoing auction issues. If, for any reason, the contact information you have provided in the domain application as submitted by you to your registrar is inaccurate, you may lose the domains you have won in auction.



d. When your auction account is created, we establish a unique bidder alias which is used to identify you to other auction participants. This bidder alias does not reflect any information about your account. If allowed by the registry, you can change your bidder alias to one of your choosing prior to participating in any auctions, but once set, it cannot be changed again.



e. As soon as auctions are scheduled (they will not have started at this point) you will receive an “Account Activation Email” from no-reply@domain.tatar. In that email will be a special link that will allow you to activate your account. By clicking the link, you will be redirected to the auction site at where you will be prompted to enter a new password.



f. Once you have entered your password, your auction account is ready and you will be able to view your auctions. Important Note: In order to place bids in .TATAR auctions, you must have placed your deposit with the registry.



g. It is your responsibility to safeguard your account userid and password. You accept full responsibility for any bids submitted, or modifications made to your account, using this password.



h. You shall ensure that all information in your domain name applications and all Auction account information is at all times current, complete, and accurate. Any failure to keep your information current, including a failure to respond to requests by the registry or Pool.com, is a material breach of the auction rules and may result in you being declared ineligible to participate in .TATAR auctions.



3. Auction Access


The decision to grant the applicant access to an auction is made by the registry. The possibility for participating in an auction (Auction Access) can be granted only to such invited applicants that (1) have activated their accounts prior to the start of the auction, and (2) made (transferred/paid) a deposit in an amount, within the timeline and per the procedure established in the Auction Scheduled notice. In addition to the foregoing, the registry deters an invited applicant’s participation in an auction, where:


a. evidence has been established of fictitious (unauthentic and/or invalid) identification information and/or contact details the applicant provided while submitting an application for a domain name priority/premium registration in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of Domain Name Registrations in .TATAR gTLD and the Anti-Abuse Policy in .TATAR TLD;


b. a positive decision has been made with regard to an objection to the application for a domain name priority registration in accordance with the .TATAR Dispute Resolution Policy for Sunrise period and Limited Registration periods;


c. there has been a court order to liquidate the applicant (for corporations) or an arbitration court’s ruling on recognizing the applicant bankrupt and opening bankruptcy proceedings (for both corporations and sole proprietors);


d. there has been an effective order to suspend the applicant’s operations following the procedure established by the Russian Federation law on administrative offences.


Applicants granted by the registry access to the auction are recognized as Auction Participants.


The applicants recognized as Auction Participants, as well as the applicants who were not granted Auction Access, are notified of decisions taken by the Registry by email within 5 (five) calendar dates from the date a respective decision has been made.



4. Deposit



a. To qualify to participate in any .TATAR auction, applicants will have to submit a deposit to the registry in advance. The registry will confirm receipt of payment of the deposit to Pool.com, authorizing the auction account.

The deposit value is set by the registry and equals to:

The name of the period

Deposit value:

Sunrise period for trademarks (service marks) registered with the TMCH

100 (one hundred) Rubles

Limited Registration Period for Public Authorities

100 (one hundred) Rubles

Limited Registration Period for other categories

1000 (one thousand) Rubles

Landrush period Step 1

30000 (thirty thousand) Rubles

Landrush period Step 2

15000 (fifteen thousand) Rubles

Landrush period Step 3

3000 (three thousand) Rubles

Landrush period Step 4

650 (six hundred and fifty) Rubles

b. In compliance with par. 3 Art. 438 of the Civil Code of Russian Federation, the applicant who has made the deposit is deemed to have fully and unconditionally accepted the Deposit Agreement under the terms set forth herein. In compliance with par. 3 Art. 434 of the Civil Code of Russian Federation the Written Deposit Agreement between the applicant and the registry is deemed to have been fully observed since the moment of the applicant having completed the actions on putting the deposit.


c. The Deposit made is non-refundable and deemed a penalty, should the Participant breach the terms of the present Rules, namely:

  • A Participant has been debarred (Section 10 of the present Rules);
  • A Participant has placed no bids;
  • A Winning Bidder has defaulted on its payment obligation (to pay the amount due for the auction lot).


5. Bidding

a. Your Pool.com .TATAR Auction account will give you access to all of your auctions that have been applied for using the same email address. It does not matter through which registrar you have submitted your application; all of your auctions will appear in your same .TATAR Auction account login, as long as you are using the same email address.


b. Auctions follow a standard process flow: scheduled (upcoming), open and closed. You will receive an Auction Scheduled notice at least thirty (30) days in advance of the auction starting. Once an auction starts (you will receive an Auction Start notice when an auction opens), you may place bids through the interface. Once closed, the auction is complete and if you were the winning bidder, you would proceed to the payment process with the Registry.


c. If you choose to bid for a particular domain and you are the highest bidder at the end of an auction, you are obligated to complete the transaction and pay to the Registry the amount of your winning bid. Carefully consider your bids prior to placing them - bids are not retractable under any circumstances.


d. All bid placement is a two-step process. The first, allows you to enter your bid. Then, you will be prompted to confirm the bid you are placing to make sure there are no errors. Carefully review your bids before confirmation since any bid placed establishes your legal responsibility to complete the transaction up to that bid amount should the auction close with you as the winning bidder.


e. A valid bid must be at least one bidding increment above the current auction value. Any bid submitted that is higher than one such increment above the current auction value will be treated as a proxy bid, meaning the system will only bid the required minimum in order to obtain the auction lead up to the bid value. (See also Proxy Bidding below)


f. Participants can put their bids with account of the following requirements:

(i) Each bid shall be as a minimum at one bidding increment in excess of the current bid;

(ii) The Participant may not place a bid in an amount equal or smaller than the amount of the bid it has placed earlier at that auction;

(iii) The Participant whose bid is a leading one may not increase it until overbidden by another Participant;


g. In the event of a tie bid, the earliest bid received wins.


h. If no bids are placed on a particular domain, the Registry will make the final determination as to which applicant is allocated the domain.


i. You will know if you are winning the auction as the current auction price in the auction interface will be highlighted in green (if you are losing the auction the name will be in red). This appears in the list of auctions on the Open Auctions page. At the time you place your bid, the system will confirm that you are the current high bidder if your bid exceeds the current highest bid (which may not be the auction value if the previous high bid was a proxy bid). When an auction ends, the auction system sends a confirmation email to the winning bidder, explaining which domain they have acquired, and the amount paid for the domain.



6. Proxy Bidding

a. At any point in the auction, in order for a bid to be considered “valid” (acceptable by the system) it must be at least one bidding increment above the current auction value. For example, if the auction is currently priced at 2250RUB and the bidding increment is 350RUB, then the lowest possible acceptable bid is 2600RUB. The bidding increments change as the auction value increases. The bidding increment table is included below (Section 7 of the present Rules).


b. Any bid placed that is more than a single increment above the current auction price is considered a proxy bid. If your bid is more than the maximum bid submitted by the current leader, the system will only bid that portion of the bid submitted necessary to assume the auction lead. If your bid is less than or equal to the maximum bid submitted by the current leader, then the full value of your bid will be accepted. There can only be one maximum bid for any auction at any point in time which may or may not be the actual auction value. The table below provides an example of an auction that includes two proxy bids shown in yellow.

Sample Auction with Two Proxy Bids

Round

Bidder 1

Bidder 2

Auction Value

Auction Lead

Comments

1

500

 

500

Bidder 1

The opening bid must be a minimum of 500RUB

2

 

600

500

Bidder 1

This bid would be rejected because it is not at least one increment (500RUB) higher than the auction value. A valid bid must be at least 1,000RUB

3

 

1,000

1,000

Bidder 2

Now that a valid bid is submitted, we have a new leader

4

20,000

 

1,500

Bidder 1

Here is the first example of a proxy bid, the system only uses the minimum required. The remainder will be bid by system automatically if necessary

5

 

3,000

3,500

Bidder 1

Bidder 2 submits a valid bid. The system immediately and automatically updates the auction based on the previous maximum and Bidder 1 is still the leader.

6

 

25,000

20,800

Bidder 2

Another example of a proxy bid, the system only uses that portion of the bid necessary to give Bidder 2 the lead, in this case the previous maximum plus one bid increment at this level (800RUB).

7

25,000

 

25,000

Bidder 2

This is a valid bid since it is at least one increment above the current auction value. Bidder 2 is still the leader because they placed this bid level first.

c. The auction system will continue to automatically bid on your behalf up to and including the value of your proxy bid (consider it your maximum) whenever you are outbid. You will see the same behavior if someone else has placed a high proxy bid and your bid is simply one increment above the current value. You may see the system immediately rebid on the proxy holder’s behalf and thus retain the lead.


d. If a valid bid submitted matches an existing maximum proxy bid, then the auction value will be set to that maximum bid and the first participant having placed that bid will retain the lead.


e. A proxy bid is a convenient way for you to submit your maximum bid and allow the system to manage your bidding up to, but not exceeding, that amount on your behalf. Of course, if your maximum bid is exceeded, you will receive an “Outbid” email notification allowing you the opportunity to increase your maximum bid as appropriate.


f. The value of a proxy bid is never displayed to other participants unless the auction value has surpassed the proxy bid value.


7. .TATAR Auction Minimum Bidding Increments (Rubles)

Bottom Range

Top Range

Minimum Increment

0,00

15,999

500

16,000

31,999

800

32,000

79,999

1,500

80,000

324,999

3,000

325,000

799,999

15,000

800,000

Or greater

30,000

The starting price of each auction equals 50 (fifty) Rubles. The current price of each auction is available in the auction account.

All the auctions are conducted by rising the current auction price at a minimum bidding increment.



8. Extensions



a. The normal auction schedule lasts no less than seven (7) days (168 hours). Normally, auctions will start on Monday through Thursday. In the event of significant auction activity, an auction close may extend during the last twenty-four (24) hours of scheduled operation.


b. Auction extensions are meant to provide a mechanism that is fair for bidders in all time zones to respond to being outbid.


c. An auction extension will occur whenever the auction lead changes in the last twenty-four (24) hours of the schedule of an auction. The close will be revised to reflect a new closing time set at twenty-four (24) hours after the change in auction lead occurred. Essentially, this means that a winning maximum bid has to remain unchallenged for a period of twenty-four (24) hours before the auction will close.


d. It is important to note that extensions are not simply based on the auction value changing since this could occur as a result of proxy bidding where the same bidder retains their lead. In this case, the maximum bid has not changed, the leader has not changed and therefore no extension will occur.


e. No Sunrise auction will extend eight (8) additional days (no more than 192 hours) past the original closing date (fifteen (15) days in total (no more than 360 hours)). The same policy will apply to Limited Registration and Landrush auctions, but the registry may change the maximum duration of the auction at its own discretion.


9. Auction Communications

a. Throughout the auction process you will receive ongoing email communications from Pool.com or the registry. These will originate from no-reply@domain.tatar. Please ensure this email address is whitelisted with your email provider to ensure important auction notices are not routed to your spam folder.


b. Participants in an auction will receive email notifications for a variety of purposes. These include:

  • Initial account verification (as explained in Section 2)
  • An auction is scheduled
  • An auction is started
  • The participant has been outbid and they will lose the auction if no further action is taken
  • An auction end date/time has been extended
  • Last day auction notification (for participants who have not placed any bids for that auction.)
  • The participant has won an auction
  • Request for payment
  • Confirmation of payment processed and allocation pending
  • Once a domain name is allocated, the .TATAR registry will contact registrars directly indicating the status of the application for all their participant’s domain names. Registrars will then contact registrants regarding the awarding or loss of a domain auction.


10. Participant Debarment.


The registry may at any time make a decision to debar a Participant in situations set forth in paragraphs a.-d. Section 3 of the present Rules


Debarred participants are notified thereof by the registry and/or Pool.com by email with a reference to the reason therefor within 5 (five) business days from the moment of the debarment.



11. Auction Results

a. The auction is voided, where (1) only one Participant or no Participant was granted access thereto, or (2) the auction system has not received any bids,


(i) In the event the auction was voided due to only single Participant having granted access thereto, the registry may make a decision to grant the right to the priority/premium registration of a domain name to such a sole Participant at a price equal to the Deposit put.


(ii) In the event the auction was voided because the auction system did not receive any bids, the registry may opt for either decision from below:

  • to hold a repetitive auction, or
  • to reject all earlier approved applications for priority/premium registration of a respective domain name.


Participants/applicants are notified of the registry’s decision by the registry and/or Pool.com by email within 5 (five) business days, with copies thereof being also promptly dispatched by email to respective registrars.


b. At the close of an auction, the registry and/or Pool.com s elect the most successful bidder among Participants.


The highest qualified bidder shall be the Winning Bidder. In the event of a tie bid, the earliest bid recognized by the auction system wins.


c. The registry and/or Pool.com shall within 5 (five) business days dispatch to the Winning Bidder a notification of the win at the auction by email. The notification will also contain information of the date and time of the start and close of the auction, subject of the auction, auction price, and a legally binding auction results memorandum.


d. A Winning Bidder is bound to effect payment for the subject of the auction (lot) in an amount, within the timeline and following the procedure specified in such a notice of the win at an auction. The amount of the Deposit shall be offset towards performance of payment obligations.


An auction is deemed to be closed from the moment of the Winning Bidder has performed his payment obligations.


e. In the event a Winning Bidder defaults on its payment obligations in accordance with the procedures and within the timelines established in the notice of the win at an auction, it is recognized to have avoided signing a memorandum of the results of the auction and its Deposit will be forfeited.


In that case, the registry may declare the Winning Bidder a Participant whose bid was second to the maximum one (in accordance with the auction results notification). Where that Participant also defaults on its payment obligation, the registry may declare the Winning Bidder another Participant (in a descending-bid order), provided that a Participant who has put no bid at the auction may not be recognized a Winning Bidder.


f. In the event all determined by the registry Winning Bidders defaulted on their payment obligations the registry voids an auction due to the foregoing reasons in accordance with paragraph a. Section 11 of the present Rules), with Deposits made by such Participants remaining non-refundable (paragraph c. Section 4 of the present Rules).



12. Payment

a. All auctions are conducted and settled in Russian Rubles (RUB).


b. The registrar through whom you submitted your application is responsible for collecting any registration fees from you independent of the auction fees (which will be collected by the registry). Any questions about registration fees should be directed to your registrar.