Domain auctions for reserved .ee domains

In 2011, the Estonian Internet Foundation (EIF) reserved .ee domains with names of Estonian administrative units, foreign countries, and abbreviations with a view to making them available to institutions with a legitimate interest. While many reserved domain names have found an owner in the past 12 years, the domains that have not attracted interest during that time are now available to all. Now we are making the reserved domain names available for everyone.

In addition, EIF also brings single-character .ee domain names to the market. The goal of the Estonian Internet Foundation is to be an open and liberal registry and to ensure equal access to all people interested in the .ee name resource. We also fulfill this goal through an auction with open bids and thus make many top-level domains with Estonian country codes available to everyone who wants them.

Domains will be auctioned in limited weekly batches to ensure sufficient time for interested parties to bid. An English auction with open bids is used to bring the names to the market, i.e. all the bids made are visible to the participants of the auction in real time. According to the rules of the .ee domain, all interested parties from all over the world can participate in the auction in the auction environment https://auction.internet.ee/.

The schedule of the reserved .ee domains is available here: https://www.internet.ee/eif/news/auction-schedule-of-reserved-domains

The overall conditions of the open-bid English auction are:

At the auction, you can purchase the preferential right to the .ee domain name. Meaning that the winner of the auction will have exclusive right to register the relevant .ee domain name.
From the auction, you will get the exclusive right to register the relevant .ee domain name with our .ee accredited registrar. You can find the list on our website: https://www.internet.ee/registrars/accredited-registrars
Participants in the auction will be issued a generated pseudonym. During the auction, the Auction Portal will display the price of the last bid the person with the pseudonym did.
The auction time for single-character .ee domain names lasts for 7 days (from 12:00 to 11:59).
The starting price for the domain names are:

For the Estonian places and country names 5 euros;
For the single-character domain names 500 euros;

The bids are made in euros and the transaction for the acquisition of the preferential right of the .ee domain is subject to VAT.
To participate in the auction of single-character .ee domain names, a deposit of 500EUR must be paid prior to bidding. The deposit can be paid by bank transfer, credit card or internet bank.

The deposit will not be refunded to the winner of the auction and will be taken into account as partial payment of the purchase price.
The deposit will be returned to the other participants in the auction and those who paid the deposit within 10 working days as of the end of the auction to the same bank account from which the deposit was paid.

You can place an unlimited number of bids in the auction. However, the bid cannot be withdrawn.
The English auctions will have an extended closing time of 15 minutes. The auction is considered finished within 15 minutes before the end time. However, if there is a new bid, an additional 15 minutes will be added to the last bid time. If no new bid is made within 15 minutes, its end time is considered as the end of the auction.
The auction of the preferential right to the .ee domain name is won by the person that has submitted the highest bid for the acquisition of the preferential right to the .ee domain name.
The winner of the auction must pay the invoice for the acquisition of the preferential right to the .ee domain name within 7 days.

If the winner does not pay the price bid within the 7 days, they will not acquire the preferential right to the respective .ee domain name. In this case, the domain name that was on auction returns to the auction and the user may not participate in the auction of the preferential right to that .ee domain name again.

If you win the auction:

EIF will issue the reservation code for the preferential right of the .ee domain name after the payment of the invoice for the domain name.
The reservation code gives the right to register the respective .ee domain name at the selected accredited .ee registrar. Keep in mind that the .ee domain name registration fee is added in accordance with the .ee accredited registrar's price list.
The registration of the .ee domain name has to be done within 30 days.
If the .ee domain name is not registered within 30 days, EIF will cancel the preferential right for the registration of the respective .ee domain name. In such case, EIF has no obligation to refund the bid price paid by the winner. EIF has the right to resend the preferential right to the .ee domain name to auction.

EIF starts the deadline count from the day following the auction day at 00:00.

How are the proceeds from the auction used?

The proceeds from the auction will be invested in the development of a more efficient .ee and making the Estonian internet safer. Therefore, the participants of the auction make their contribution to improving the internet in Estonia. In addition, EIF also supports every year several projects that develop internet-related knowledge in society. Among the projects, there are activities conducted in elementary and high schools, research conducted by Estonian universities, youth programme BSides Tallinn and many more.

Learn more about the open bid auction terms and conditions from our homepage.