News

Deceptive sales practices by IS BNL

18 July 2024

Once again, an organisation has surfaced that contacts .com registrants and, under some pressure, advises them to register the .be variant of their domain name: IS BNL. This is probably a dishonest practice. We therefore ask domain name holders to be vigilant.  

Unreliable parties: IS BNL, IRS BeneluxDNS EU, IDS Belgium and DNS Benelux

The applied practice by IS BNL is not new: you are contacted and told that someone else is interested in registering your trademark or domain name, but with a .com extension. You are encouraged to register the .be domain name yourself, to reduce image degradation or customer loss. Registration starts immediately for a long period, in the example we received you register for 10 years.

We warned about the same approach by DNS EU back in December 2023. The Liège court previously ruled that similar practices by IDS Belgium and DNS Benelux were misleading or even downright deceptive.

Our advice: don't take up the offer of IS BNL

  • Are you interested in registering your domain name with another extension ? Then contact your registrar, with whom you previously registered your .be.   
  • File a complaint against this offer via the FPS Economy. They are responsible to investigate unfair commercial practices.