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MISLEADING DOMAIN NAME CALLS "TIP OF THE ICEBERG"
1st December, 2003
The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has reported that a Swansea-based company offering an internet domain name registration service has agreed not to make misleading statements to businesses following enforcement action.
The OFT received complaints that Internet Registrations Bureau Limited (IRBL), trading as Euro Web Designs, had contacted businesses informing them that a third party was interested in registering a domain name similar to their business name. The businesses were then invited to register the domain name with IRBL but were advised that they only had a short period of time in which to accept the offer or the domain name would be registered to the third party. When challenged by the OFT, IRBL was unable to provide evidence that any such third parties existed.
The Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988 implemented an EC Directive on misleading advertising and gave the OFT the power to step in if the public interest requires that dubious advertisements should be stopped by means of a court injunction.
The OFT has secured written undertakings from IRBL and its directors Paul Dilling and Susan Ford that they will cease to claim to have been contacted by third parties interested in registering domain names when no such interest exists.
John Vickers, OFT Chairman, said:
'We will continue to crack down on advertisers who make misleading claims about their services. Businesses should be wary of domain name registration companies cold calling and putting pressure on them to purchase names in haste.'
More details at: http://www.demys.net/news/2003/12/01_oft.htm
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