tldr:
- The Financial Conduct Authority is enabled by Nominet to suspend domains which are criminal.
- Nominet relies on FCA having a sound legal basis on which suspensions are actioned.
- The FCA was asked to provide some transparency in their suspensions and the policy it uses to ensure everything is sound.
- The FCA confirmed it does not have any formal policy for domain suspensions.
- The FCA believes it is not in the public interest to know what domains names it has suspended and why (despite having a public warning list).
request:
Dear The Financial Conduct Authority,
Can you please provide a list of all domain suspension requests made by TheFCA to Nominet through any programme (including but not limited to the Criminal Practices Policy https://nominet.uk/wp-content/uploads/20…), including; the date/time requested, date/time responded, domain(s), persons requesting, persons responding, reason for suspension, if the request succeeded or failed and the reason given for failure.
You can find examples of such domain suspensions we have detected at https://carlheaton.com/transpicuous-nomi… (and these should be included).
Please also provide any suspension policy or other information relevant to the relationship or communication between theFCA and Nominet.
Should the handling of this request risk hitting your fee cap, please limit the requests going backwards in time from the date as far as is possible until reaching the fee cap.
Yours faithfully,
response:
Our ref: FOI9560
Dear Mr Heaton
Freedom of Information: Right to know request
Thank you for your emails of 22 August and 21 September 2022, in which you
asked for a list of all domain suspension requests made by the FCA to
Nominet through any programme, for the period between August 2021 and July
2022 inclusive. Please see full script of your request in Annex A.Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your request.
We have processed your emails in line with the provisions of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).Before we respond to your request, we would like to explain that Nominet
is the official registry for UK domain names only, and it does not
maintain a registry of domain names of firms registered overseas. Since
very few unauthorised entities register their website with a UK domain
name, the details provided below represent only a small subset of the
overall number of consumer alerts and website suspension/take-down
requests processed by the FCA during the relevant period.Turning now to your request, we can confirm that we hold some of the
requested information and the data we can disclose (the list of domains
and the dates when each suspension request was sent to Nominet) is set out
in the table below. This data is accurate as at 30 September 2022.Domain Name Suspension Request Date
eis-investor.co.uk 02/08/2021
securebond.co.uk 10/08/2021
comparefixedrates.co.uk 23/09/2021
investment-compare.co.uk 07/10/2021
regulated-fixed-income.co.uk 16/11/2021
fixedratecompare.co.uk 17/11/2021
crypto-hub.uk 07/02/2022
Bipfunds.co.uk 03/03/2022
Bitmainltd.uk 03/03/2022
fsma.org.uk 18/03/2022
profitfx.uk 21/06/2022
uktopbonds.co.uk 13/07/2022
[1]https://www.broadinsurance.co.uk/ 16/08/2021
[2]www.bit-system.co.uk n/a
[3]https://www.fluidtrustuk.co.uk 08/09/2021
[4]https://ownloans.co.uk 26/11/2021
[5]www.investmentcenter.co.uk 26/11/2021
stephelpfree.co.uk 20/01/2022
[6]https://cube-renewables.co.uk/ 01/02/2022
[7]https://www.pensions-services.co.uk 15/02/2022
asn-innovationmarkets.co.uk n/a
[8]www.thebanklondon.uk and
[9]www.thebanklondon.co.uk n/aPlease note, where ‘n/a’ appears in the second column, we no longer hold
the original record of the FCA submission and are therefore unable to
confirm the precise date of the suspension request.Please also be aware that the details of one of the suspension requests
sent to Nominet during the relevant period have been withheld, as the firm
they relate to have subsequently clarified their position and their domain
has since been fully reinstated. We are of the view that disclosing that
information would prejudice the commercial interests of the firm involved
and, therefore, section 43 (Commercial interests) of FOIA applies.Finally, we are unable to disclose the remainder of the information for
the reasons set out below:The details of the persons requesting the suspension and those of the
persons responding (when applicable) constitute the personal information
of the individuals concerned and are exempted from disclosure under
section 40 (personal data) of FOIA. The dates of Nominet’s response (where
applicable), the reason for suspension, and the outcome of the suspension
request constitute ‘confidential information’ for the purposes of section
348 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). We are
therefore prohibited from disclosing this information under section 44 of
FOIA.For more information on why these exemptions apply, please see Annex B.
Turning now to the remainder of your request, we can confirm we do not
hold any policy or any other information in writing relevant to the
communications between the FCA and Nominet.To the extent that it is helpful in understanding our response, we joined
Nominet’s pilot scheme to suspend/take-down websites along with several
third parties. The pilot is run and operated entirely by Nominet.Where we identify a website which is being used to carry out or promote
regulated activities in breach of FSMA and the domain is hosted by
Nominet, we will write to Nominet with information about the offending
website along with details of the breach and ask Nominet to prevent the
domain name from being used by re-directing visitors to a FCA landing page
for a minimum of 24 months or the expiry of the domain name, (if sooner).
When a website is found to be in breach, Nominet will normally post a
notice stating that the domain has been suspended at the request of the
FCA. The notice also states that, if a consumer has been affected by
activity associated with the suspended domain, they should visit the FCA
for advice and support and a link is provided to the FCA’s [10]ScamSmart
page.Since June 2022, we have retained a third party to support it with the
identification and take-down of websites and therefore take down requests
are now made by that third party as the FCA’s authorised agent.Your right to complain under FOIA
If you are unhappy with this response, you have the right to request an
internal review. To do so, please contact us within 40 working days of the
date of this response at [11][email address].If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also
have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner by phone or on
their website at:Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: [12]www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Information Disclosure Team / Operations
12 Endeavour Square
London
E20 1JN
[13]www.fca.org.uk