Registration Rules 

 Version 1.0 
 Notice: This Document is translated into English for reference only. This Document in Arabic is the definitive and official version.

1. The Scope of these Rules

Applying the text of paragraph (2/2) of the Saudi Domain Name Registration Regulation, these rules include the requirements, procedures, eligibility conditions and the prohibited activities relative to Saudi Domain Name.

2. Definitions

The terms and expressions defined in the Telecommunication Act, its bylaws and the Regulations for Saudi Domain Name Registration shall have the same meaning in this document. In addition, the words and expressions set hereunder in this document shall have the meanings assigned below:

  1. Latin Domain Name: a name composed of several ASCII labels separated by dots, and takes one of the following forms:

    • A 2nd Level Latin Domain Name (2LD domain), e.g. “example.sa”, where the label “sa” is the first level from the right; or
    • A 3rd Level Latin Domain Name (3LD domain), e.g., “example.com.sa”, where the first two labels from the right should be one of the sub level Saudi ASCII ccTLDs such as (gov.sa) or (com.sa.)

  2. Latin Label: A sequence of characters (a-z) not case sensitive, numbers (0-9) and the hyphen symbol (-) used to create a Latin domain name.

  3. Arabic Label: A sequence of characters (e.g. Arabic alphabet, digits, and the hyphen (-) ) used to create an Arabic domain name.

  4. Arabic Domain Name: refers to one or both of the standard two representations of an Arabic domain name:

    • The Arabic representation: composed of two Arabic labels separated by a dot (e.g. موقع.السعودية) , where (السعودية) is always the first level from the left; or
    • The ASCII representation: composed of two ASCII labels separated by a dot corresponding to the Arabic representation where (xn--mgberp4a5d4ar) is always the first level from the right.

  5. Corresponding Latin label: A sequence of ASCII characters which is used to represents the Arabic Label on the Internet. The sequence is always prefixed with the string (xn--) and is generated using the standard IDNA algorithm through which the two labels (Arabic and ASCII) are interchangeably get converted correctly.

  6. The Regulation: Saudi Domain Name Registration Regulation, including any changes, modifications and as may be updated from time.

3. Eligibility conditions for registration

3/1 2LD or 3LD Domain names may be registered within the Saudi Latin ccTLD according to the following:

  1. (.sa) Dedicated to any natural person or legal entity. It is considered as a 2LD Latin domain name.

  2. (.com.sa) Dedicated only for entities that provide commercial services with a valid Commercial Registration (or equivalent) issued by a pertinent authority in Saudi Arabia (e.g., Ministry of Commerce and Investment (MOCI); or for locally registered trade names and/or trademarks with MOCI.

  3. (.edu.sa) Dedicated only for educational and training institutions that provide services directly to students (e.g., schools, universities, training institutes) with valid licenses issued by a pertinent authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (e.g., Ministry of Education, Technical and Vocational Training Corporation).

  4. (.sch.sa) Dedicated only for kindergartens, elementary schools, secondary schools, and high schools with valid licenses issued by a pertinent authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (e.g., Ministry of Education).

  5. (.med.sa) Dedicated only for entities that provide health services (e.g., hospitals, medical clinics, pharmacies), with valid licenses issued by a pertinent authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (e.g., Ministry of Health).

  6. (.gov.sa) Dedicated only for governmental entities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia including ministries, authorities, and general agencies.

  7. (.net.sa) Dedicated to entities that provide information technology services, communications services, media services, or postal services (e.g., ISPs, web hosting, TV and news media ), with valid licenses issued by a pertinent authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (e.g., Communications & Information Technology Commission, Ministry of Commerce and Investment, or Ministry of Media).

  8. (.org.sa) Dedicated for non-profit organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including societies, charities, clubs, embassies, conferences and public organizations.

  9. (pub.sa) Dedicated only for individuals.

4. Condition for Domain Name syntax

4/1 The following conditions must be fulfilled for registering a Latin domain name:

  1. An ASCII Label should be at least 2 and no more than 63 characters. The first and last character should be a letter or number. Labels shall not include two consecutive hyphen (-) characters.

  2. Individuals may register personal names (using Latin characters), whether it is the first name or the family name (e.g., Ahmad, Ali or Alfulani), under (.sa) or the (pub.sa) according to SaudiNIC terms and procedures.

4/2 The following conditions must be fulfilled for registering an Arabic domain name:

  1. The Arabic Label should be at least 2 symbols.

  2. The Arabic Label should have a valid Corresponding ASCII Label.

  3. The Arabic label should not start or end with a hyphen (-) and should not have two consecutive dashes.

  4. The symbols representing the Arabic Label should comply with terms and conditions specified by SaudiNIC which include permitted characters and symbols to be used in registering Arabic domain names.

  5. Individuals may register personal names (using Arabic characters), whether first or family name (e.g., Ahmad, Ali or Alfulani), according to SaudiNIC terms and procedures.

4/3 SaudiNIC may establish rules and procedures to resolve the problem of character variants within the Arabic language or with other Arabic based script languages (e.g., Persian, Urdu).

5. Prohibited Activities

5/1 A Registrant may not register, use, or maintain a domain name, nor submit any Service Request related to it as a mean to do or to support any of the following activities:

  1. Reselling or renting the domain name.

  2. Domain name warehousing.

  3. Cyber-squatting or phishing other websites and services.

  4. Acquiring fraudulently personal or confidential information or other means of identification.

  5. Spamming or sending malicious e-mails.

  6. Hosting or distributing malware.

  7. Hijacking domain names.

  8. Cracking systems and networks, or perform denial of service attacks.

  9. Activities or content against the Islamic religion or Saudi laws and regulations (e.g., pornography, illegal drugs, alcohol, gambling and intellectual property piracy).

  10. Activities classified as information crimes according to the pertinent regulations.

  11. Activities that are in violation of The Regulation, this Rules or any SaudiNIC procedures.

6. Deleted Domain Names Availability

6/1 A deleted domain name may become available within a random time but not exceeding 60 days from the deletion date.

7. Registrant Information Service

7/1 The Registrant or any person may access the registrant information service or any service offered by SaudiNIC provided that it is used for the following purposes only:

  1. Checking the domain name availability.

  2. Obtaining registration information about a certain domain name.

7/2 Information acquired from the registrant information service or any similar service shall not be used for any undesired activities, including but are not limited to: any activities which are unsolicited such as sending any commercial or marketing advertisement or sending unsolicited emails (spam).

7/3 It is not permitted to utilize automated tools and/or electronic processes that send queries or data to the registrant information service or any similar service provided by SaudiNIC that will negatively affect or interrupt the service.

8. Domain Name Transfer

8/1 SaudiNIC may request any relevant documents from both parties it deems necessary to transfer of domain name registrations.

8/2 SaudiNIC has the authority to reject a transfer request if the transfer seemed to be as a result of any of the prohibited practices mentioned in This Regulation, the necessary documents are not provided, or if the approval from both parties is not obtained.

8/3 SaudiNIC has the authority to issue any additional procedures to regulate the process of domain name transfer.