Legal

PremiumDNS Terms of Service Agreement

This PremiumDNS Terms of Service Agreement ("Agreement") sets forth the terms and conditions of Your use of Namecheap, Inc.’s premium DNS services (the “Services”) as defined in Section 2 below. The Services may, at the sole and absolute discretion of Namecheap, Inc., be delivered by a third-party provider (“Vendor”). In this Agreement "You" and "Your" refer to You as the user of Our Services, or any agent, employee, servant or person authorized to act on Your behalf. "We", "Us" and "Our" refer to Namecheap, Inc., as well as its subsidiaries and sister companies and any third-party providers, including but not limited to the Vendor (collectively, “Namecheap”). This Agreement explains Our obligations to You, and explains Your obligations to Us for using the Services. These obligations are in addition to (not in lieu of) any terms and conditions that apply to Your use of the Services under any other Namecheap policies and/or agreements. When You use the Services, Your Account (or You permit someone else to use it) to purchase or otherwise acquire access to the Services or to cancel Your Services (even if We were not notified of such authorization), You signify Your agreement to the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement along with the Namecheap Universal Terms of Service Agreement and all applicable policies and product agreements incorporated by reference therein. You agree that Namecheap may, in its sole and absolute discretion, modify this Agreement and the Services it offers to You from time to time and that such modifications are effective immediately upon posting to this site. Your use of the site or Services after such changes or modifications have been made constitutes Your agreement to be bound by this Agreement as last revised. If You have purchased Services from Namecheap, the terms and conditions of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect, including any changes made to this Agreement, as long as You take advantage of and use the Services.

1. Definitions.

   Unless otherwise specified, capitalized terms used in this Agreement shall have the meanings set forth in this Section 1.

   1. “Confidential Information” means material, data, systems and other information concerning the operation, business projections, market goals, financial affairs, products, services, customers and Intellectual Property Rights of the other party that may not be accessible or known to the general public. Confidential Information shall include, but shall not be limited to, any information which concerns technical details of operation of the Services.

   2. “Customer Zone(s)” or “Domain Name” means the data provided by You to Namecheap which contains information that defines how the Services should respond to DNS Queries.

   3. “Disrupting Event” means any event not within Namecheap’s control which causes interruption of the Service, degrades the performance of the Service, impacts the operational stability of Namecheap, or Namecheap’s customers, or in any other way interferes with the use of the Services by Namecheap, or Namecheap’s customers, or the provision of such by Namecheap to its customers.

   4. “DNS” means the Doman Name System that is a distributed database and hierarchical global infrastructure deployed on the Internet and private IP-based networks used to resolve domain names into IP addresses.

   5. “DNS Query” shall mean a request received by the Name Servers for information about a Customer Zone.

   6. “DNS Security Extensions” or “DNSSEC” shall mean a service which allows a Customer to digitally sign its Domain Name’s authoritative zone data.

   7. “Intellectual Property Rights” mean any and all now known or hereafter existing rights associated with the United States and foreign copyrights (including, without limitation, the right to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, publicly display and publicly perform the copyrighted work), database rights, trademarks (including, without limitation, trade dress, trade names, service marks, corporate names and logos), inventions, patents (including, without limitation, the right to make, use, offer for sale and sell), patent applications, software, firmware, know-how, trade secrets, moral rights and all rights or forms of protection of proprietary rights of every kind and of a similar nature, or having similar effect to any of them, which may exist throughout the world however designated, whether or not any of them is registered, and having applications for registration for any of the foregoing.

   8. “Primary Name Server(s)” shall mean server(s) that make Customer Zone(s) available to the Services for distribution to the Name Servers.

   9. “Resource Record(s)” shall mean a record contained in a Customer Zone that, includes, but is not limited to, the following entries: Name, Class, TTL, and Type.

   10. “Name Servers” means the name servers, hardware, software, data, algorithms and processes used to host, and resolve DNS Queries for, the Customer Zone(s).

   11. “Service Infrastructure” includes, but is not limited to, the database, Name Servers, application servers, application gateways, network devices, software, specifications, protocols, IP addresses, configurations, routing data and processes and any other tangible or intangible asset used by Namecheap to provide the Services.

2. Service Description.

   Namecheap will provide You with a cloud-based service which hosts, and resolves DNS Queries for, Customer Zone(s) (collectively, the “Services”). You must ensure that Customer Zones do not exceed 1,000 Resource Records.

3. Customer Obligations.

   You shall (a) set up, configure and update Customer Zone(s) throughout the term; (b) after You have completed DNS configuration, You must ensure that Your registrars-of-record modify the records for the Domain Names that You are hosting to make the Name Servers authoritative for such Domain Names; (c) provide Namecheap with reasonable access, cooperation, and timely and accurate information; (d) permit Namecheap and the Vendor to exchange any and all relevant information, including but not limited to Your Confidential Information relating to the Services provided herein; (e) upon request by Namecheap make changes or direct Our service providers to make changes to existing network equipment and/or infrastructure in order to enable Namecheap to provide the Services; (f) be responsible for obtaining all necessary authorizations and permissions to effect such changes; and (g) be responsible for all fees or charges (if any) for making such changes.

4. Permission To Use

   1. Permission to Use. Namecheap grants to You, and You accept, a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, permission and ability to use the Services. You acknowledge and agree that (a) Namecheap retains all Intellectual Property Rights (as defined herein), title to and interest in all other information, data, content, software, systems, infrastructure, ideas, concepts, techniques, processes, configurations or other intellectual property embodied in or used or practiced in connection with the Services.

   2. Restrictions. You shall not (a) permit either direct or indirect use of the Services by any third party; (b) resell or distribute any of the Services or any copy thereof to any customer, end-user or other third party; (c) attempt to create a substitute service or product through the use of the Services under any circumstances; (d) modify, dissemble, decompile, reverse engineer, create derivative works of, or make any other attempt to discover or obtain the source code for any of the software or systems which deliver the Services; or (e) combine any software with any code or software licensed under the GNU General Public License (“GPL”) or any other open source license, in any manner that could cause, or could be interpreted or asserted to cause, such software (or any modifications thereto) to become subject to the terms of the GPL or such other open source license.

   3. Customer Right To Use. You grant to Namecheap and Namecheap accepts a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, right and ability to use the Customer Zone(s) for the purposes of providing the Services.

5. Protection of Infrastructure.

   In case of a Disrupting Event, Namecheap may immediately and without prior notice suspend the Services to You where Namecheap has a reasonable belief that the Disrupting Event involves or is directed at You. Within forty-eight (48) hours of any such suspension (or sooner if reasonably practicable), Namecheap will notify You (email being sufficient) of the suspension and of the Disrupting Event. You agree that, if notified of such a suspension, You will cooperate with Namecheap in good faith to determine the cause of, and resolve, the Disrupting Event if possible.

6. Effect of Termination.

   In the event of expiration of the term or termination of this Agreement, the Services will be terminated for all Customer Zone(s) on the date on which the Agreement expires or the date on which the Services are terminated by Namecheap or You in accordance with this Agreement, as applicable. You are solely responsible for (a) removing the Customer Zone(s) and contacting Your registrars-of-record to redirect DNS name server delegation for such Customer Zone(s); (b) any registrar modification fees incurred for changing DNS name server delegation; and (c) procuring any new or replacement services upon termination or expiration. By not taking any action with respect to Customer Zone(s) before the date on which this Agreement expires or the Services terminate, as applicable, You hereby acknowledge and agree that Namecheap may, in its discretion, take any number of actions which include, but are not limited to, not resolve DNS Queries to such Customer Zone(s) which will likely result in interruption of its DNS resolution on or after the date on which this Agreement expires or the date on which the Services terminate, as applicable, redirect DNS Queries, or respond to such DNS Queries in a manner deemed suitable to Namecheap.

7. Representations & Warranties.

   You represent and warrant that (a) Your registration and use of any domain name(s) will not infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party and are for legitimate purposes and not for the purpose of (i) disrupting the business of a competitor; (ii) confusing or misleading Internet users; or (iii) cybersquatting, which is defined as the registration or acquisition of a domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the owner of a trademark reflected in the domain name or to a competitor; (b) You have obtained any necessary consents and permissions to provide Your and/or third party information (including, but not limited to, the Customer Zone(s), Domain Names and any personal data) to Namecheap; (c) the use of the Services is for Your own internal use and not for resale by You; and (d) You are not engaged in any illegal activities and that You will comply with all applicable rules, regulations and laws; (e) You will not misappropriate or infringe, directly or indirectly, the intellectual property rights of any third party. In the event Namecheap believes, in its discretion, that You have breached any of the foregoing representations and warranties, Namecheap may, without limitation, terminate this Agreement immediately upon notice to You, suspend the Services immediately upon notice to You, and remove some or all of the Customer Zones.

8. No Right of Indemnification Against Vendor.

   You acknowledge and agree that You shall have no right to seek, and shall not seek, any indemnification directly from Namecheap or the Vendor.

9. Disclaimers.

   NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT TO THE CONTRARY, THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”, “WHERE IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” AND, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NAMECHEAP DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, DEALING OR TRADE USAGE.

10. Compliance with Law, Export Requirements, Foreign Reshipment Liability.

    Each party agrees that it shall comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations, and export requirements in connection with its performance under this Agreement. Regardless of any disclosure made by You to Namecheap of an ultimate destination of any software, hardware, or technical data acquired from Namecheap and, notwithstanding anything contained in this Agreement to the contrary, You will not modify, export, or re-export, either directly or indirectly, any software, hardware, or technical data, or portions thereof, without first obtaining any and all necessary licenses from the United States government or agencies thereof or any other country that requires an export license or other governmental approval at the time of modification, export, or re-export. Namecheap shall have the right to suspend performance of any of its obligations under this Agreement, without prior notice and without liability if You fail to comply with this Section 11.

11. Anti-Bribery.

    You represent and warrant that (a) You are aware of, understand and will comply with the provisions of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and the U.K. Bribery Act, as applicable (collectively, the “Acts”); (b) You will not take any action that might be a violation of the Acts or other applicable anti-corruption laws that prohibit the same type of conduct; (c) You have, and will have, policies in place sufficient to ensure compliance with the provisions of the FCPA and the U.K. Bribery Act, as applicable; (d) You and Your Affiliates, in the exercise of Your and their rights and the performance of Your and their obligations under this Agreement, or in connection with any transaction contemplated or authorized by this Agreement, have not, and shall not, pay or give, offer or promise to pay or give, or authorize any third party to pay or give, any money or any other thing of value directly or indirectly for the purpose of unfairly obtaining or retaining any business or securing an other unfair advantage to: (i) any government official or government employee (including any official or employee of a state-owned commercial enterprise or public international organization; (ii) any political party or officer or employee of any political party; (iii) any candidate for political office; (iv) any officer or employee of any customer or potential customer; or (v) any other person, firm, corporation or other entity at the suggestion, request or direction of, or for the benefit of, any of the foregoing persons or entities; (vi) all amounts paid to Namecheap by You hereunder, including, but not limited to any discounts or credits furnished by Namecheap, if any, shall not be paid or given to any other person, firm, corporation or other entity, except in payment for a bona fide business purpose authorized by this Agreement and incurred in connection with the performance of services hereunder in accordance with applicable law. Namecheap acknowledges that any violation of this Section 11, or any formal allegation brought by a government agency charged with enforcement of anti-corruption laws that You are involved in a violation of any applicable anti-corruption law involving, or related to this Agreement, would be a material breach of this Agreement, giving Namecheap the right to terminate this Agreement immediately without any liability owed by Namecheap.

12. Billing & Payment.

    All fees for the Services shall be in accordance with Namecheap's fee schedule then in effect, the terms of which are incorporated herein by reference, and shall be due at the time You order the Services, unless otherwise noted. All fees are non-refundable, in whole or in part, even if the Services and/or Your domain name registration are suspended, cancelled or transferred prior to the end of Your then current term, unless this Agreement or the Namecheap Refund Policy specifically provides for a refund. At the sole and absolute discretion of Namecheap, fees for the Services may be refundable if You cancel the Services within five (5) days after purchase.
    Service availability is limited by the outstanding domain name registration period at the time You order the Services. If Your domain name registration expires prior to the end of one (1) year from purchase of the Services, You will be required to pay the full annual fee but Your Services will automatically expire upon expiration of your domain name registration. If Your domain name registration expires on a date which is after one (1) year from purchase of the Services, You may elect to purchase the Services for a period expiring on the expiration date of Your domain name registration. In such cases, the fees for Services will be prorated for the period which exceeds one (1) year from purchase of the Services.

13. Service Availability; Suspension & Termination of Services.

    1. Service Availability. The Services are not available during any period of transfer of a domain name registration to or away from Namecheap. You acknowledge and agree that You are solely responsible for adding DNS records from any third-party nameservers utilized by You prior to using the Services. Namecheap has no liability or responsibility for any damage, loss of data, loss of use or other loss occurring in connection with any downtime resulting from your decision to cease using third-party nameservers and commence using the Services.

    2. Suspension & Termination of Services. Namecheap may defer commencement or suspend the Services being provided to You at any time and for any reason, including but not limited to a deferral or suspension arising as a result of the requirements of the Vendor and/or any third-party service provider. Further, We may reject Your purchase of the Services, or elect to discontinue providing Services to You, at any time (i) for breach of this Agreement, the Namecheap Universal Terms of Service Agreement or any of the policies or agreements incorporated by reference therein; (ii) following the cancellation or termination of your domain name registration with Namecheap; or (iii) as a result of the rejection, suspension or termination of services by the Vendor or any third-party service provider. No refund is available for any period of deferral or suspension or termination of Services pursuant to this Section 13.

14. Service Level Agreement for DNS Resolution.

    Namecheap will use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the Services deliver 100% DNS resolution (“Service Level Agreement” or “SLA”). If We fail to meet this SLA, as solely determined by Us, due to an internal infrastructure or equipment failure resulting in a failure by the Services to respond to your DNS queries, You may be eligible to receive an Account credit calculated as the prorated Service fee for each day of downtime up to a maximum of 30 days per 12 month period. A staff member within Our customer support team must confirm downtime. To be eligible for a Service cycle prolongation, You need to contact Namecheap by submitting a ticket to Namecheap’s Billing department within the first three (3) calendar days after the downtime took place. You may not be eligible for a Service cycle prolongation in the case of a Service interruption caused or associated with issues such as the following (regardless of whether an internal infrastructure or equipment failure by Namecheap also caused or contributed to the Service interruption):

    • DDoS or similar attacks on Our servers;

    • Third-party software failure;

    • You maxing Your resource container;

    • Issues resulting from errors or omissions by You;

    • Interruptions caused by You as a result of custom scripting, coding or the installation of third-party applications;

    • Network conditions across the internet (outside of our network), such as between Your ISP and Our data center;

    • Firewall blocks/bans;

    • Browser or DNS caching issues;

    • Outages related to the reliability of certain programming environments;

    • Any other circumstances beyond our control or that are not reasonably foreseeable; or

    • Any act of God or force majeure which results in a Service failure.

    This SLA shall be Your sole and exclusive remedy for any defects in, or issues with, the Services. Namecheap shall not be liable for any consequential or indirect loss or damage caused by the failure of the Services.

15. Survival of Terms.

    The following provisions shall survive any expiration or termination of this Agreement: (a) Section 1 (Definitions); (b) Section 4.2 (Restrictions); (c) Section 6 (Effect of Termination); and (d) any other provisions of this Agreement which, by their nature, were intended by the parties to survive any expiration or termination of this Agreement.