What Is 60-day transfer lock? Domain Glossary

Why it matters

Under ICANN's current Transfer Policy, a registrar may deny transfers within 60 days of creation. It must apply a 60-day lock after a change of registrant unless the holder opted out beforehand. This catches sellers who edit the owner name just before a sale. On 7 June 2026 the ICANN Board adopted changes that would replace the 60-day lock with a 30-day one, but no effective date has been published, so the 60-day rule still applies today. Common mistake: scheduling a closing date without checking when the last change was made.

Source: icann.org

Where we use this term

Related terms

30-day (720-hour) transfer lock: The 30-day transfer lock is a shorter transfer hold that ICANN's Board approved on June 7, 2026. It would replace the current 60-day lock. ICANN has not published an effective date.
Change of registrant: A change to the registered owner's name, organization or email on a domain. Under ICANN's current policy, it needs approval from both old and new owners and usually triggers a 60-day lock on moving to another registrar.
Inter-registrar transfer: An inter-registrar transfer moves a domain from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another. The new registrar asks for an authorization code, and the registry completes the move once both sides approve.
Registrar lock: A registrar lock is the EPP status clientTransferProhibited. It tells the registry to reject any request to move the domain to another registrar. The owner or registrar sets it to prevent unauthorized transfers.
Auth code (TAC): A secret code from the current registrar that proves you may move a domain to another registrar. ICANN's updated policy calls it a Transfer Authorization Code (TAC). Other names are EPP code and transfer key.

All 205 terms

Why it matters

Where we use this term

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