When registering a domain name with the German .de extension, the registry has the requirement that the postal adress of the administrative contact of the domain must be located in the European Union. For customers that do not have a postal address in the European Union we offer the Trustee Service.
The Trustee Service is a legal arrangement in which the registration of your domain is carried out, using a lawyer with a postal address within the European Union as the administrative contact. That way you can still register a .de domain name even if you do not meet the requirement yourself. The costs for a Trustee Service add-on with a .de domain name are €3.00 per year excl. VAT.
For new .de domain name registrations our system automatically checks whether you need the Trustee Service according to the requirements of the registry. In addition, you can change the so-called WHOIS information during the ordering process by clicking on "Edit WHOIS and nameservers" in the shopping cart overview.
When registering a new .de domain name there are two possible situations:
- If you have a postal address in the European Union for the administrative contact of the .de domain name, there is no problem. You can then register a .de domain name without needing an additional service.
- In case you do not have a postal address in the European Union for the administrative contact of the .de domain name, the Trustee Service will automatically be added during the ordering process when you register a .de domain name.
How do I turn off the Trustee Service?
If you no longer need the Trustee Service for your .de domain name, you can disable it. You do this by changing the administrative details of the domain name to an address in the European Union. If the administrative details for your .de domain name already contain an address in the European Union, you only need to save these details.
For existing .de domain names, you can change the administrative details as follows:
- Go to 'Domain' in your control panel
- Select your domain name on the left hand side (don't tick the box).
- Click on 'Manage' at the top right and in the new menu click on 'Manage contact information' below the header 'Domain name'
- Change the adress below the 'Administrative details' to a postal address in the European Union and click on 'Save'
- You will now see a screen that clarifies that the Trustee Service will automatically be cancelled after you save this change. Click on 'Apply' to apply the change.
There are no costs for changing the administrative details of a .de domain name. If you save a postal address in the European Union for the administrative details of the domain, the contract for the Trustee Service will automatically be cancelled.
In this article we explained what the Trustee Service for .de domains is, why we offer this service and how you can turn it off if you no longer need it.
In case you have any questions regarding this article, do not hesitate to contact our support department. You can reach them by using the 'Contact us' button at the bottom of this page.