DRS CASE LAW NON UK DISPUTES ORIGINAL DRS
DRS Statistics
2 May 2002
To date, Nominet has received a total of 344 new disputes into the Dispute Resolution Service since its re-launch on 24 September 2001. In the vast majority of cases, participants use Nominet's online forms. 81 of the complaints were invalid (23%) and were therefore deemed withdrawn.
Of the cases received by Nominet, 238 have been archived, and 106 are ongoing.
A total 98 cases have completed the informal mediation stage. Of these, the parties have reached agreement to settle their dispute in 54 (or 55%) cases.
A total of 49 cases have been referred to an independent expert for a decision. 6 decisions are awaited. 43 have been decided. In 37 cases the complainant has been successful. In 6 cases the complaint was dismissed. You can find a copy of the published decisions to date on Nominet's web site at http://www.nominet.org.uk/drs/decisions.html.
In 23 (57%) of the published cases to date, the registrant made no response to the complaint. In these cases, the complainant tends to succeed if they can set out a prima facie case.
In addition, a complainant is not obliged to submit a case for an expert decision. Nominet provides its service free of charge to participants up to the end of the informal mediation stage. If mediation fails, or if the registrant makes no response to the complaint, the complainant is invited to pay a fee of £750 + VAT for the matter to be referred to an independent expert. In many cases, the complainant does not pay the fee, and the case is closed.
There have been no appeals to date.
