CzechRepublic's dispute resolution effectiveness in question
Thu 13. Mar 2025, 11:35
CZ.NIC, administrator of the Czech country code extension .cz, is in trouble with its out-of-court dispute resolution procedure Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). This was triggered by a dispute with CZ.NIC member AliaWeb, which had applied to the court to declare a decision to introduce ADR invalid because it was incompatible with Czech law. While the Municipal Court in Prague confirmed its validity, the High Court came to the opposite conclusion. In its opinion, it was not within the competence of the Management Board of CZ.NIC to make such a decision. CZ.NIC, on the other hand, is of the opinion that this issue needs to be investigated further, as the outcome will have a significant impact on the functioning of the domain name system in the Czech Republic. Therefore, the registry decided to turn to the Supreme Court to obtain a clearer interpretation and thus contribute to legal transparency. The aim is to create legal certainty for domain and rights holders, according to CZ.NIC. Anyone currently affected by an ADR procedure for a .cz domain should therefore check whether they would be adversely affected by any invalidity of the procedure.