The Swedish Internet Foundation works according to a business model called the registry-registrar model, which is an internationally established standard for top-level domains. In short, the business model means that all domain holders are customers of the registrars. The registrars enter a registrar agreement with The Swedish Internet Foundation which entails that the registrar supplies services including the following for .se and/ or .nu domains:
New registration of domain names
Renewal of domain names
Transfer from one registrant to another
Updating registrant information
Updating name servers
Cooperation during registrants' changes of registrar
Deregistration of domain names
Fees, discounts and credits
VAT will be added to all fees and payment shall be made on receipt of an invoice in accordance with the payment terms and conditions stated on the invoice.
The Registrar must pay an application fee to The Swedish Internet Foundation in the amount of SEK 10,000 at the time of application.
The Registrar must pay an annual administration fee of SEK 5,000.
Registration fees and discounts
Upon new registration, the Registrar must pay a registration fee and a period-based domain fee per registered Domain Name.
The registration fee is 20 SEK.
The registration period is between 12 and 120 months, and the domain fee is 10 SEK per month.
If, at the time of a new registration, the domain holder’s information is validated in accordance with The Swedish Internet Foundation's guidelines regarding e-identification validation, the Registrar is entitled to a 10 SEK discount for the domain registration.
In the event that the Registrar, at any given time with new registration of Domain Names, has activated DNSSEC on over 70% of all of their Domain Names (registered on the Registrar's registrar account), the Registrar is entitled to a 20 SEK discount per newly registered Domain Name.
The minimum fee payable for a new registration, with a registration period of 12 months, is 110 SEK if the Registrar is entitled to both discounts, and 140 SEK if the Registrar is not entitled to any discounts.
The highest fee payable for a new registration, with a registration period of 120 months without discounts, is 1,220 SEK.
The fee is invoiced by The Swedish Internet Foundation on the first day of the month following the time of registration.
Renewal fees
The Registrar must pay a period-based domain fee per registered Domain Name when renewing the Domain Name.
The renewal period is between 12 and 120 months. The lowest fee charged is for a renewal period of 12 months (120 SEK), and the highest fee is for 120 months (1,200 SEK).
The fee is invoiced by The Swedish Internet Foundation on the first day of the month following the renewal.
Application to become a registrar
The first step is that the company that wants to become a registrar sends in an application that is assessed based on compliance with requirements and a financial and suitability perspective. You apply by:
Fill in the application form found here: "Become a Registrar". The application form contains contact details and a number of questions that you must answer.
Pay the application fee of SEK 10,000 excluding VAT to bank giro: 5064-9011. Enter "Application fee, Internetstiftelsen registrar", and your company name.
You also need to answer questions in IT security, data protection and other technical competence in connection with applying to become a registrar. The questions that will be sent to you via e-mail to answer after you have completed the application form and paid the application fee are shown here.
The Swedish Internet Foundation receives the application
The Swedish Internet Foundation will handle your application promptly and will inform you if anything is missing or if further information is required. The application will be assessed on the basis of finances and suitability and will be either approved or rejected.
You will be informed of whether your application was approved, so that the process can be continued or not. You will get the answer within ten working days from receipt of the complete application. This ten-day period applies to Swedish companies, because a longer period of time is usually required to complete the financial assessment for foreign companies.
If the application is approved
If your application is approved, an e-mail will be sent to you containing important information that we ask you to read and confirm. Once we receive the confirmation, you will receive an email regarding payment of the application fee of SEK 10 000 excluding VAT. You will get further information about the payment in an email. Note that this is a fee that is not refundable if you do not complete the certification within 3 months.
The Swedish Internet Foundation will then send you instructions regarding how the functional test is carried out.
Once the test is completed, we require you to send in two copies of your signed registrar agreement and to pay the administrative fee. The Swedish Internet Foundation will send you the two copies of the registrar agreement for signature once you have passed the test. Once payment has been made and the agreement has been signed by both parties, you are an approved registrar of The Swedish Internet Foundation.
See also 'General requirements for registrars' further below.
If the application is rejected
The Swedish Internet Foundation may reject your application if your company does not fulfill the financial and/or suitability requirements. If your application is rejected, The Swedish Internet Foundation will inform you as soon as possible.
Examples of factors that can give rise to rejection are that the applicant is judged to show shortcomings in IT security, data protection, technical competence, et cetera. or that economic stability cannot be demonstrated. For start-ups, it is often difficult to meet these requirements, as working methods have yet to be established, and financial assessment cannot be carried out in a satisfactory manner. In such cases, we recommend that you investigate the possibilities of becoming a subregistrar, or so-called reseller for an existing registrar. When your business has become more established and working methods are in order, you may once again apply to become a registrar. The application is then reassessed.
If our application is rejected, when can we apply again?
You can apply not earlier than six months after The Swedish Internet Foundation informs you that your application has been rejected.
Requirements to become a registrar
Companies that are successful in the financial and suitability assessment will proceed to the next stage of the process, which entails that your company must obtain a passing grade in function testing related to the test systems of The Swedish Internet Foundation for EPP.
The functional test must be completed with passing grades not later than three months after the application is approved and The Swedish Internet Foundation has sent the company information regarding how the tests should be completed.
To become a registrar for The Swedish Internet Foundation, the following steps are required:
Approved registrar application
Passing grade on functional test for EPP
Registrar agreement signed by both parties.
Functional test
The functional test is a mandatory part of the process of becoming a registrar. It is a technical test to ensure that the registrars' system and employees can correctly carry out registration services using EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) in relation to The Swedish Internet Foundation. The functional test includes the following subjects:
New registrations of domain names
Renewals of domain names
Updating contact information
Updating name servers
Change of registrant
Deregistrations of domain names.
All registrar candidates must complete the functional test, regardless of any prior experience of EPP from other top domains. Information on how to apply for the functional test will be sent to you by e-mail once The Swedish Internet Foundation has processed and approved your application.
Please note that you must complete the functional test with a passing grade no later than three months after The Swedish Internet Foundation sent you information regarding how to complete the test.
Test environment
The EPP test system is available for testing the EPP protocol, kindly note that domains in the test environment must end with .test. The test system does not contain a ready made test database - it is up to you to build your test database by making registrations, eg domain.test
Should you have questions about the test environment, please contact us at, registry@internetstiftelsen.se
