We have published news about the outreach to suspend illegal pharmaceutical domains before, and it seems that Nominet are now the latest Registry to acknowledge suspension requests for certain domains.

In an official statement published on their website, Nominet have declared that they are in full cooperation with the “Operation Pangea IV” initiative which is being coordinated by Interpol. They are amongst a number of other Registries who are cooperating with Interpol in order to make their namespace a safer place.

Nominet were alerted by the Police e-Crime Unit, who are working with Interpol, that there were a number of sites present on .uk domains that were selling unauthorised or counterfeit medications. Following the notification, Nominet worked with the relevant Registrars and have suspended the domains in question so they no longer resolve, in line with the Nominet Terms and Conditions.

Interestingly the domains were not seized on this occasion, as has been the case in other cases with other Verisign domains under the same investigation. However suspending a Nominet domain essentially shuts down the site and the Registrant would need to contact the Registry directly to enquire about having the suspension lifted. So far it looks as though around 500 .uk domains have been suspended all together.

Lesley Cowley, the CEO of Nominet has declared the action as essential to ensure that all .uk domains remain safe. Cowley made the following comment:

“The domain name industry has taken responsible action to protect consumers and demonstrated our commitment to ensuring .uk remains a trusted space for all.”

Operation Pangea IV has already seen more than 13,500 websites suspended and dozens of people have been arrested spanning 81 different countries. Everyone from local police to custom agencies have been involved in tracking down and suspending the illegal online activities.

Nominet themselves are also within the final stages of perfecting a policy which would allow a domain name to be suspended without a court order if it was believed to be hosting illegal content. This was discussed in a Nominet Working Group recently, and the recommendations are soon to be finalised. It is expected that the policy could be brought in as soon as the end of this year.

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