CoCCA announced changes in order to be GDPR complaint

In light on announced changes of WHOIS search system as a result of complance with with GDPR, many domain register are having concerns about this issue. CoCCA is one of the first domain registry systems that presented the forthcoming changes. CoCCA announced that from May 15 it will not be possible to see the name, email, phone and physical address of the registrant  in Whois records. This will only be applicable if the registrant is an EU resident or uses an EU-based registrar or reseller (except for registrants who wants their info to be public). Trademark owners that want to access same data in order to protect their legitimate interests, will be able to get historical abstracts online, but prior to paying fee and provided they sign an attestation. These new changes that will affect domain names registers  and system of public search of domain names, raised a huge cerns among trademark community since it will be harder to enforce brand owners’ rights online and especially to fight against domain names registered and used in bad faith.