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 and renewal fees
Upon new registration, the Registrar must pay a registration fee and a period-based domain fee per registered Domain Name. The registration period is between 12 and 120 months.
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 fee is invoiced by The Swedish Internet Foundation on the first day of the month following the registration and renewal.
The current discounts and prices for new registrations and renewal are specified in Appendix 4 of the registrar agreement, Fees and Payment Terms
Application to become a registrar
Starting from June 2024, there is a requirement for registrars to have at least 50 unique registered domain holders under .se and/or .nu. In practice, this means that when you apply to become a registrar, you need to be a reseller for an existing registrar and have existing customers who own .se and/or .nu domains.
The first step to apply 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 inform you if anything is missing or further information is required. The application will be assessed on the basis of finances and suitability and other requirements as for example 50 unique registered domain holders under .se and/or .nu domains. The application 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 The Swedish Internet Foundation will then send you instructions regarding how the functional test is carried out. The functional test needs to be completed within 3 months. The application fee is not refunded if the functional test is missed.
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 'Requirements to become a registrar' further below.
If the application is rejected
The Swedish Internet Foundation may reject your application if your company does not fulfill the requirements, financial and/or suitability. 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, number of customers 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, lack of customer base 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 no earlier than six months after The Swedish Internet Foundation informs you that your application has been rejected.
Requirements to become a registrar
Companies that fulfill the requirements and 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.
If you're already accredited as .se registrars, you don't need to undergo the functional test when applying to become .nu registrars, as you've already completed it for .se and the systems are identical. Similarly, this applies to an accredited .nu registrar applying to become a .se registrar.
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
