It appears that Godaddy charges its customers $50 one of their domains get hit with a UDRP.

One customer is complaining on his own blog.

Daniel Paden tells his tale on the blog Atheiststoday.com, in a post entitled, Stop Using Godaddy, including all the emails he exchanged with Godaddy complaining about a $50 fee charged to Mr. Paden credit card when a UDRP was filed against one of his domain names.

“I purchased a domain name to use on a project I was working on. Someone had a problem with me owning the domain name because they thought it would negatively effect them. Whether that is true or not isn't important really. This person filed a complaint with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) over the right to the domain name which they have the right to do if they wish.”

“Godaddy charges me $50 because of the dispute. Keep in mind no guilt had been proven to exist it had simply been a case of someone accusing me of being guilty. It could have been someone who had no real interest in the domain whatsoever. Godaddy and DomainsByProxy had no factual data on which to base their actions. The dispute should have had no effect on me except that my domain became locked to prevent it from being transferred to another party or evidence being destroyed.:

The only reason godaddy could automatically take $50 from my bank account was because I had auto payments set up to renew my web hosting accounts with godaddy. Those hosting accounts were for domains completely unconnected to the the domain name in dispute.”:

The post goes on to show Godaddy.com response:

“Thank you for contacting us. The domain name B*******.NET has been named in a domain dispute filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO.int). As a result, the domain name has been placed on registrar-lock and will remain locked until we are directed otherwise by WIPO.

We have also charged a $50 fee for processing the legal dispute. You may wish to review our Registration Agreement for more information regarding administrative fees at

http://www.xxx.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?se=%2B&pageid=REG%5FSA

This fee is refundable only if the decision is found in your favor.

Kindest Regards,

David Castano

Disputes Administrator

GoDaddy”"

After several back and forth email’s Godaddy refunded the $50 to Mr. Paden

In Godaddy’s defense the other issue that really seemed to upset the domain owner is that once the UDRP was filed the DomainsbyProxy privacy service was lifted to reveal the owner of the domain. Mr Paden writes:

“I had purchased identity protection from DomainsByProxy.com. As soon as the complaint was filed they cancelled my identity protection. Those clowns have no idea why a person has purchased their service why would they just drop it and leave a person exposed? In my case it wasn’t a huge deal but it still pissed me off. What if the customer had reasons for using their service that would result in possible harm if their identity was made public. I’m sure that is rarely the case but it is a valid possibility.”

Unfortunately Mr. Paden seemed not to understand that the removal of privacy protection once a UDRP is filed is required by ICANN and part of the terms of the contract which all registrars have to follow to keep their accreditation.

Maybe Godaddy needs to explain this better it their terms and conditions.

This story from Internet.