com.au Domain Rules and Eligibility: The Complete Guide
You have picked a name, the .com.au version is free, and then the order form asks for an ABN and wants to know how the name relates to your business. That second question is where most people stall.
The rules behind it come from auDA, the administrator of the .au namespace. They are stricter than the rules for a .com, and they keep applying long after you have paid the invoice. Here is what is actually required.
Short answer: A .com.au domain is open to commercial entities registered to trade in Australia, or to holders of an Australian trade mark. You supply an ABN, ACN, ARBN or trade mark, and the name has to relate to you: your business or personal name, an acronym of it, or a match for what you sell. Eligibility applies the whole time you hold the domain.
Who can register a .com.au domain?
Two groups qualify. Commercial entities registered to trade in Australia, which in practice means anyone holding an ABN, ACN or ARBN, and holders of an Australian trade mark or a pending trade mark application. There is no personal residency test. The test applies to the entity that will hold the licence.
That covers more people than you might expect. A sole trader with an ABN qualifies. So does a Pty Ltd company, a partnership, a trust with its own ABN, or an incorporated association. A foreign company registered to carry on business here uses its ARBN, and an overseas brand with no local entity at all can rely on an Australian trade mark instead.
What identifiers does auDA accept?
Four of them: an ABN, an ACN, an ARBN, or an Australian trade mark, including a trade mark application still under examination. You enter the number during registration and it is checked against the relevant government register. If the number does not validate, the order fails right there rather than weeks later.
| Identifier | Usually held by |
|---|---|
| ABN | Sole traders, partnerships, trusts, companies and associations trading in Australia |
| ACN | Australian companies registered with ASIC |
| ARBN | Foreign companies registered to carry on business in Australia |
| Australian trade mark or application | Brands protecting a mark here, including overseas brands with no local entity |
Most businesses use the ABN, simply because it is the number already on file. If you run a company, either that or the ACN works. What matters more is that the entity attached to the number is the one that should actually hold the name, because fixing that later is a formal change of registrant.
Does the domain name have to match your business name?
It has to relate to you, which is broader than matching exactly. auDA accepts four kinds of connection: the exact business or personal name, an acronym or abbreviation of it, a match with your Australian trade mark, or a match or synonym of what the business does, the goods it sells or the services it provides.
Take a plumbing company called Riverstone Plumbing Pty Ltd. It could hold riverstoneplumbing.com.au under the exact name rule, rsp.com.au under the acronym rule, or a services name like blockeddrains.com.au under the last rule, because clearing blocked drains is genuinely what it does.
Where it gets fiddly is generic names with no link to your activity. A landscaping business cannot pick up a finance name and argue the connection afterwards. On the trade mark route the name has to match the mark itself. If a name is a close call, ask your registrar before you print it on a van.
How long does a .com.au licence run for?
You can licence a .com.au for one, two, three, four or five years. Nothing longer is available. You hold the name for the term you paid for, and you keep it after that only if you renew on time and still meet the eligibility rules on the day the renewal goes through.
The word licence is doing real work there. You are not buying the domain the way you buy a laptop. You hold a right to use it, for a term, on conditions. If that distinction is new, this plain English explanation of how a domain name actually works covers the machinery underneath it.
What happens if you stop being eligible?
Eligibility has to be met at the time of registration and for the entire time you hold the domain, not just on day one. If the ABN behind it is cancelled or the company is deregistered, the licence rests on something that no longer exists and it can be cancelled. Nothing warns you at the time.
The usual triggers are ordinary business events rather than mistakes:
- You restructure from sole trader to a Pty Ltd company and cancel the old ABN, leaving the domain registered to an entity that has gone.
- A pending trade mark application lapses, and it was the only identifier supporting the name.
- You wind up the business but want to keep the name for a future project.
All three are fixable if you act while the old entity still exists. Moving the licence across is a change of registrant, processed by your registrar using the new identifier. Far easier in that order than proving a connection to an ABN that has already been cancelled.
What should you have ready before you register?
Very little, and having it in front of you turns a fifteen minute job into a three minute one. You need the identifier number, the exact entity name it belongs to, an email address you will still control in five years, and a decision about which extensions to hold from the start.
- Your ABN, ACN, ARBN or Australian trade mark number.
- The entity name exactly as it appears on the government register, spelling, punctuation and all.
- A contact email address that is not on the domain you are registering, so a lockout cannot lock you out of your own recovery.
- A shortlist of extensions. Most businesses take .com.au first, then add .net.au or the matching short .au name defensively. Both cost the same, and the comparison of .au direct and .com.au covers which one belongs on your signage.
The step by step version is in the guide to registering an Australian domain, and the rest of the domain names section of the Knowledge Centre covers transfers, renewals and DNS. Pricing sits on the GoodHost domains page: .com.au, .net.au, .org.au and .au are all $19 a year.
Frequently asked questions
Can a sole trader register a .com.au domain?
Yes. A sole trader with an active ABN is a commercial entity registered to trade in Australia, which is what the rule asks for. The name still has to relate to you, so use your trading name, an acronym of it, or a name describing the services you provide.
Can an overseas company register a .com.au domain without an Australian entity?
Yes, by one of two routes. A foreign company registered to carry on business in Australia uses its ARBN. A company with no Australian registration can rely on a registered Australian trade mark or a pending application instead. On the trade mark route the domain has to match the mark, so there is much less freedom in the name.
Do you own a .com.au domain outright?
No. You hold a licence to use it for a term of one to five years, subject to continuing eligibility. Day to day it behaves like ownership: you control the DNS, you can move it to another registrar, and nobody else can take the name. The distinction only bites when eligibility changes or a renewal is missed.
Can you register a .com.au domain that matches a competitor’s brand?
Getting it through the registry and keeping it are two different questions. Availability does not override trade mark law, and a name registered mainly to trade on somebody else’s brand invites a dispute you are unlikely to win. If the name sits close to an established competitor, take advice before you build anything on it.
What happens to a .com.au domain if you close the business?
The eligibility supporting the licence disappears with the entity, so transfer the registrant details to another entity you control while the old ABN is still active. If you simply let the name lapse it eventually returns to the pool and anyone eligible can register it. Handle this before deregistration rather than after.
If your ABN is handy and the name clears the relation test, the only thing left is confirming the exact spelling is still free. Run it through GoodHost’s domain search and you will know in a few seconds. A .com.au is $19 to register and $19 to renew, so there is no cheap first year waiting to jump on you later.