As domain owner you have usually registered your domain name with us via an Internet Service Provider and paid him. This provider was either a member of DENIC eG himself or has cooperated with a member as a so-called reseller or subprovider.

The DENIC member that is responsible for your domain names has now told us that it will no longer pay us, i.e. it has terminated the administration for some or all of your domain names. There can be several reasons why this decision has been made. Especially it can happen, if your contract with your provider has been terminated either by you or by him.

The DENIC member has transferred the administration of the domains back to us. They are now in the transit state, because you as domain owner now have to decide within the coming weeks what is supposed to happen with the domain names. This transit state applies only to the registration of the domain names. Internet access, webspace and other services, which have been provided by your ISP, are not affected by this transferral. Therefore you may not be able to use these services in the future.

Why the appropriate DENIC member no longer administrates your domains is generally not known to us. Please turn to your provider with questions concerning this topic or - if known - to the apppropriate DENIC member.

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DENIC is the central registry for all DE domains. Even if you have registered your domain via a provider, there exists a contract between DENIC and you. In addition to that there exists a contract between you and your provider, which covers domain administration and possibly other services used by you. As long as a DENIC member administrates your domains, your obligation to pay us becomes inactive according to 4, (1) of the DENIC Registration Terms and Conditions. However, for domains in the transit state, this obligation becomes active again. Here are the relevant parts of the DENIC Registration Terms and Conditions:

Excerpt from the DENIC Registration Terms and Conditions:

1 Term

The General Standard Terms and Conditions are valid for the registration agreement between DENIC Domain Verwaltungs- und Betriebsgesellschaft eG, Frankfurt/Main, (hereinafter "DENIC") and the applicant (hereinafter "Customer"). The Customer will directly submit the application for the registration, or via an Internet Service Provider, who is member of the DENIC cooperative (hereinafter "ISP"), to DENIC. DENIC will accept the application by confirming it or by making the registration.

4 Fees

(1) If the application was made via an ISP and if he meets the domain payment obligations towards DENIC, the obligation of compensation by the Customer will be inactive.

(2) If the ISP does not meet the payment obligations towards DENIC, the Customer directly has to pay DENIC for the registration services. Registration fees and due dates of payments are shown in the respective current DENIC pricelist, which can be called off under http://www.denic.de/DENICdb/domainreg/DENICdirect/preisliste.en.html. DENIC may change the prices with two months' notice.

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The domains in the transit state remain registered to you. You do not have to worry that you lose the domain names without a valid contract with a provider. The additional services that your ISP has provided are, however, possibly not or only for a limited time accessible. Therefore please turn to your provider concerning these questions.

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Whether the technical data of your domain continues to be correct and whether services, that are connected to your domain (like websites or email boxes), remain accessible depends on your contract with your provider. We have no information in this regard, therefore please ask your provider.

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If one of your domains is in the transit state, you'll receive a written notification from us. To continue to use your domain name you have to either find a new provider to administrate it for you or let our service DENICdirect manage it. When you have decided on one of these alternatives and talked to your new provider, please enter our domain transit website http://transit.denic.de/index.en.xml and proceed according to the instructions in the brochure, which we have sent you. The website itself also contains explanations of these proceedings. If not all domains in the transit state have been listed in the letter we sent to you, you should at first get an overview of these domains by selecting "List all Domains".

If you do not want to keep your domain name any longer, you can also effect a deletion of your domain name on the domain transit website.

In any event please note the deadline mentioned in the letter. By this date the necessary actions have to be completed and the provider change order of your new provider has to have arrived. If you do not act before the deadline, we will administrate the domains ourselves according to the conditions of our DENICdirect service. You will receive an invoice according to our current DENIC price list.

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A list of DENIC members can be accessed on the domain transite website http://transit.denic.de/index.en.xml. However, you can also let another provider administrate your domains. In this case ask the new provider for the DENIC member he cooperates with. You will need this information during the domain transit process.

Since our service DENICdirect does not contain Internet access and webspace, you might need a new provider for these services, even if you decide to let DENICdirect administrate your domains in the future.

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When one of your domains enters the transit state, you'll receive a letter from us telling you so and giving you all the information you need to perform the domain transit. Amongst other things we give you a password, which enables you to perform all necessary actions on the domain transit website http://transit.denic.de/index.en.xml. Since you can effect the deletion of the respective domains, we have secured all input with a password. In your own interest you should treat this password strictly confidential.

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If you do not visit the domain transit website http://transit.denic.de/index.en.xml before the deadline to perform the domain transit or a domain deletion or if your provider does not send a provider change order in time, we assume that all domains are to be administrated by our service DENICdirect. We then send you an invoice according to the current DENIC price list. Please note that the DENICdirect service does not contain Internet access or webspace. Existing websites might therefore become inaccessible at any time, unless you have a contract with your provider that explicitly regulates this case.

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You have received an invoice from DENICdirect, because either you or your provider have not performed the provider change or the domain deletion before the deadline. You can still delete your domain or change to another provider, but only according to the terms and conditions of DENICdirect. Should this case apply to you, please contact DENICdirect under the address/telephone number specified on the invoice.

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Usually it is not possible to change a domain's data while it is in the transit state, because this is the task of the new provider, especially in the case of technical data like nameserver entries or the entries for the technical contacts. Changes to the administrative contact or the domain owner data are also performed by the new provider, after the domain has moved.

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