auDA fields 146 complaints about Aussie domain industry

Australia's domain regulator auDA has revealed it received 146 complaints about resellers, registrars and other domain industry participants in the past financial year.

The regulator reported its first full year of complaint statistics in the 2010-11 annual report released late yesterday [pdf].

auDA recorded only six months of complaints in the 2009-10 financial year and did not publicly disclose the statistics before 2010.

In total, auDA reported 626 formal complaints were received in 2010-11. Of those, 480 were about .au domain names or registrants and the rest were about "industry participants".

Although not an exact comparison, the result was proportionally better than half-year statistics released the prior year.

In those six months to June 2010, auDA saw 368 complaints about domain names or registrants and 120 about "industry issues such as the services provided by registrars or resellers".

auDA said that it had 33 accredited registrars on its books at the end of June this year - no change from last years' total, although it said two had been terminated and two new ones appointed in their place.

Under those registrars sat 4743 resellers of .au domain names.

Group finances

auDA reported revenues in 2010-11 of almost $5.1 million, up from $4.6 million the previous year. Profit for 2010-11 was $223,138.

Much of the gains came from a big rise in domain name fees. auDa collected $3.9 million in fees in 2010-11, up from $3.5 million the year prior.

There was also a $170,000 year-on-year rise in registry license fees.

Although total expenses were up year-on-year, there were some notable reductions in travel expenses and also legal costs, which were down $200,000 this year.

auDA also managed to shave a bit under $16,000 off its computer expenses for the 2010-11 year.