VIII HANDLING OF COMPLAINTS AND SETTLING DISPUTES

Complaints and Objections to the Decisions and Operation of the HR-DNS Service

Article 70

Handling of complaints regarding decisions made by the HR-DNS service related to handling Applications for Domain Registration is defined by Article 40 of these Regulations.

Article 71

The applicant and the domain users may submit to the Commission objections regarding work and activities of the HR-DNS service, i.e. to the decisions made by the HR-DNS service which have been made following the domain registration procedure. The objection has to be submitted in the written form and delivered to the CARNet CEO specifying Attn. hr domain Commission , either through the CARNet registry office or by registered post. Objections may be submitted within 30 days from the day when the activity or the procedure which are subject of the objection occurred, i.e. 30 days from the day when the decision was delivered. The Commission has to issue a written Declaration on the Objection within 30 days from the day of submitting the objection. The Declaration issued by the Commission is sent to the HR-DNS service and the objection submitter by registered post. The Commission s standpoints stated in the Declaration are final and executory for the HR-DNS service. Settlement of Disputes

Article 72

A third party, not satisfied by the (status) of registration of a certain domain may undertake the following actions (in the order of priority) in the dispute over the registered domain.

(a) reach agreement with the actual domain user, e.g. according to Articles 67 or 69 of these Regulations;

(b) submit the case to arbitration, according to provisions of Articles 73-79 of these Regulations;

(c) file charges to the court of jurisdiction in the Republic of Croatia against the actual domain user, regarding the use of the domain in dispute by the user.

The disputant parties are instructed to settle the disputes primarily by agreement. Upon request of a disputant party, the HR-DNS service will try to organise a meeting with the aim of reaching agreement. In case agreement has been reached, the domain user may handle according to Articles 67 or 69, or submit the text of the agreement to the HR-DNS service, clearly stating the agreed upon changes related to the domain. The agreement has to be signed and verified by both parties, and in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations. In resolving disputes, the priority is also given to the arbitration procedure over litigation. In case of litigation, the party interested in effecting a change, has to submit to the HR-DNS service final decision issued by the court of jurisdiction (or a notarised copy of the court decision) which has to state explicit provisions related to the given domain and changes that need to be effected. Arbitration Procedure

Article 73

Arbitration procedure is conducted by the arbitration board. For each individual case a special arbitration board is appointed, which has three members from the list of the HR domain Arbitration tribunal (further in the text Arbitration tribunal). The members of the Arbitration tribunal are selected, with their prior consent, and revoked by the CARNet Board of Governors from independent professionals, particularly in the fields of information technology, law, protection of intellectual property. The list of Arbitration tribunal members is open to public and published at the address http://www.dns.hr/arbitrazno-vijece/. The Board of Governors revises the list of Arbitration tribunal members every two years. The members of the Arbitration tribunal are selected for an indefinite period of time

Article 74

The arbitration procedure in the dispute over the use or the rights to the registered domain is started by a written request of a legal or natural person, submitted to the HR-DNS service (further in the text arbitration request). The submitter of the arbitration request must:

(a) state clearly in the request:

the basic data about him/herself,

first of all the company or name (name and family name for natural persons),

address,

telephone and fax number,

e-mail address,

legal status;

which domain, registered according to the provisions of these Regulations, is referred to in the request;

what concrete change in the status of the domain registration is proposed; the statement of reasons for this proposition, including assumptions from these Regulations, as well as other applicable assumptions in the valid acts that justify the requested changes;

(b) submit a statement containing the proposal and accepting arbitration regarding the respective domain, according to the provisions of these Regulations;

the submitter of the request should also confirm in the statement that s/he will accept the decision made by the arbitration board as irrevocable;

(c) appoint one member of the arbitration board from the list of the Arbitration tribunal members;

(d) at request of the HR-DNS service, and before the arbitration board starts to work, pay the arbitration fees according to the Decision on Charging the HR-DNS Services.

The board can refuse an arbitration request if:

(a) the request is incomplete;

(b) the proposed change in the status of the domain registration is not in compliance with these Regulations.

Article 75

On the basis of the received arbitration request, the HR-DNS service will immediately, or within 5 working days at the latest, offer the actual domain user to accept the arbitration procedure and send him/her the arbitration request. The actual domain user must immediately, or no later than 10 working days from the day of receiving the HR-DNS service offer:

(a) submit their written statement regarding the arbitration request;

(b) in case s/he accepts the arbitration procedure, submit a statement agreeing to the arbitration procedure, and appoint one member of the arbitration board from the list of Arbitration tribunal members.

If the actual domain user does not submit a statement regarding the offer within the period of time mentioned in the previous Item, i.e. does not submit an objection to the offer for arbitration, then it will be understood that s/he has accepted the arbitration contract according to the provisions of these Regulations. If the actual domain user does not handle in accordance with the Item 2, point (b) of this Article, the Board will appoint a member of the arbitration board, who will be regarded as selected by the domain user.

Article 76

The board selects the third member of the arbitration board from the list of Arbitration tribunal members, who is then the chairperson of the arbitration board. After the three members of the arbitration board according to Articles 74-76 of these Regulations have been appointed, and no later than 20 working days from the day of submitting the arbitration request, the Board issues a Decision on Arbitration Procedure. The award must contain the name of the domain, data about the domain user, data about the arbitration requester, list of arbitration board members.

Article 77

The arbitration board must, no later than 30 days from the day of delivering the Decision on Arbitration Procedure make the decision regarding the request mentioned in Article 74 of these Regulations. The HR-DNS service, the arbitration requester and the actual domain user must immediately, and within 2 working days at the latest, submit to the arbitration board all the materials related to the respective domain, and requested by the arbitration board. During the arbitration procedure, the HR-DNS service may refuse to effect any changes, administrative or technical in nature, related to the domain involved in the arbitration request.

Article 78

The arbitration board s decisions are irrevocable and executory. The arbitration board s decisions are submitted to the HR-DNS service, the arbitration requester and the actual domain user in a written form. If certain rights of the actual domain user are revoked by the arbitration board s decision or transferred to the arbitration requester, the domain user can file charges against the arbitration requester at the court of jurisdiction.

Article 79

The arbitration procedure is defined in more detail by the document Arbitration Procedure in Settling Disputes related to Subdomains within HR Domain.

IX COSTS AND FEES RELATED TO HR DOMAIN MANAGEMENT

Article 80

In determining costs and fees, the fact should be taken into consideration that the activities related to managing HR domain are partly, first of all in providing the basic rights of the legal and natural persons from Article 5 of these Regulations, funded from the Budget of the Republic of Croatia (concretely, from the budget of the Croatian Academic and Research Network CARNet), and should be partly self-financed according to a not-for-profit principle.

Article 81

Costs related to the management of HR domain refer to:

establishing and maintaining the technical systems (computers and software),

necessary for the functioning of the HR domain;

membership fees in international societies related to the Internet domains management;

postage and other forms of communication, apart from communicating over the Internet;

operating costs of the HR-DNS service, Commission for "hr" domain, Arbitration tribunal and arbitration boards.

Article 82

Fees are charged for:

(a) registration of HR-T and HR-I domains;

(b) annual maintenance of HR-T and HR-I domains; repeated identical changes (e.g. of name or technical data) related to a registered domain, within a period of 6 months;

(d) arbitration procedure;

(e) procedures related to the administration of the HR domain, in a way different from the standard one, (e.g. issuing of decisions in a written rather than electronic form).

Depending on the number of requests and the volume of work, fees can be also charged for registration and/or annual maintenance of other types of domains.

Article 83

Actual list of services that are charged, the amount of fee and the charging procedures related to the HR domain management are defined in more detail in the document Decision on Charging the HR-DNS services.