The CZ.NIC Association has designed and is implementing a project of .CZ domain registrar certification, with two main objectives:

• for those potentially interested in registering a .cz domain, to provide information about the level of services offered by individual registrars,
• and for registrars, to help designing systems that are as comfortable as possible for their end customers.

The entire project focuses on end customers, and does not evaluate wholesale type services.

The certification process itself is voluntary – a registrar may apply at any time, and after evaluation, will receive a “Registrar Certified for Retail” certificate valid for one year, together with an appropriate number of starts and a corresponding symbol (logo).

The “Registrar Certified for Retail” symbol will always include a logo, the “Registrar Certified for Retail” tagline and the number of stars from the assessment. Registrars entitled to use the symbol will be able to use it in their marketing and PR communication.

The results of the assessment are available to the public in the appropriate protocol of the Registrar List.

Each registrar may request a re-evaluation once during this one-year period (e.g. due to an upgrade of the registration system or changes in services offered, etc.).

Assessment criteria

As some of the criteria are very important and a registrar who does not comply with them should not receive any star, certain conditions are required to apply. If the registrar fails to meet any of these, the assessment will not continue.

Evaluation prerequisites:

• domain can be ordered online

• main language is Czech or English

• agreement with the domain name registration rules and consent to the agreement on registration and administration of domain names during registration

• offer of technical support

In further assessment, the registrar’s registration system is tested. This means:
- the functionality of the web application for the registration of domains (or other registration methods)
- services associated with domain registration
- help and customer support

For the certification process itself, the CZ.NIC Association decided to use the services and experience of the APEK association which carries out the individual registrar assessments.

The evaluation criteria are divided into sections that will be reflected in the overall assessment:

• Registration of .cz domains (45% weight)

• Help and documentation (25% weight)

• Technical functionality (20% weight)

• Additional services (10% weight)

Based on the number of points achieved, the registrar is awarded with a certain number of stars, determined as follows:

less than 50% of the possible points = no star
50%–60% = 1 star
60%–70% = 2 stars
70%–80% = 3 stars
80%–90% = 4 stars
90%–100% = 5 stars

A registrar who is awarded more than 1 star will receive the designation “Registrar Certified for Retail” and will be entitled to use this symbol with the appropriate the number of stars for a period of one year or until the next assessment is carried out at their request.

The criteria are considered to have been met even when the specific functionality is only offered by the registrar to a restricted group of customers, and/or as a paid service. This, however, must be clearly advertised on the registrar’s website.

Course of assessment

The assessment itself has two rounds. First assessment follows the established test methodology and the registrar is informed about its result. Registrars may submit their comments and objections to this result, and these are taken into account in the second assessment round.

The final result is sent to the registrar and published in the registrar list together with a link to a file with detailed assessment of the individual criteria.

In this list, registrars are primarily sorted by the number of stars received.