Who said the life of registries is a long quiet river? Far from it, as suggested by the recent attempt to overthrow management at Nominet (registry among others of the .uk or .london TLDs) by several accredited registrars, among which “Krystal Hosting”, the leader of this revolt. These registrars request from Nominet, among other things, a reduction of the prices of .uk and higher subsidies for matters of ‘public interest’. They blame the current management, including chair Mark Wood, for a business development based only on profit, while if Nominet is indeed a private company, it is still ‘not for profit’.
The sedition, representing 12.5% of the voting rights, has called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), which they should get without any problem. In addition, they demand the immediate dismissal of 5 directors, including the CEO and the chair. They blame the current management for slashing “public benefits” from £ 26million to £ 9.8million during the last five years. At the same time, Nominet has increased the price of .uk by 50% and director pay by 70%. Finally, an immediate reopening of the blog has been requested on the Nominet website, which was closed in 2020 following numerous hostile comments towards Nominet employees. The current management justifies its policy of increasing prices by massive investments in its infrastructures. This turmoil at Nominet will be followed carefully because the wind of revolt could spread to other major European registries.
