The Domain Name Commission Limited (DNC) is wholly-owned by InternetNZ. A non-profit society established in 1995 to co-ordinate the development of the Internet in New Zealand. InternetNZ is independent and open to anyone who wants to influence the Internet’s evolution.

InternetNZ has appointed the DNC to develop and monitor a competitive registrar market and a fair environment for registering and managing .nz domain names. This includes authorising registrars and administering a dispute resolution service.

If you would like to register a .nz domain name, first find out if it is available using the domain search, then choose an authorised registrar from the list on this site. See our brochures for more information about domain names.

Any complaint about the management of a domain name should be taken up with the registrar in the first instance. Further information about the Dispute and Complaint Process is available if the complaint to the registrar doesn’t resolve your issue satisfactorily.

Registrars are authorised by the DNC.  Anyone interested in becoming an authorised registrar can apply to the DNC as outlined in the published Authorisation Process policy.

The DNC offers advice on issues such as complaints about registrars not abiding by .nz policies, incorrect domain name registration information and disputes over who should be the registrant of a .nz domain name.

Our mandate does not extend to the content of the websites that are associated with any .nz domain name. Similarly, the DNC does not have the jurisdiction to handle complaints relating to illegal or malicious use of a domain name, for example spam or phishing, objectionable or offensive website content; or possible breaches of New Zealand legislation.

A limited number of second-level domains, or 2LDs, have been created for .nz (eg. .co.nz, .net.nz, .org.nz). Some of these 2LDs have restricted usage (eg. .mil.nz, .cri.nz, .iwi.nz, .govt.nz), whereby proposed domain names are scrutinised for their suitability by a moderator appointed by the DNC.  More information may be found in the .nz policy for Second Level Domains.