contract-law internet
How can a company buy an internet domain?
<p>How can a just formed legal entity (a company XYZ) buy an internet domain (e.g. <a href="http://www.xyz.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">www.xyz.com</a>)?</p>
<p>It has to be a human doing that. When I have checked the forms to fill in, they always ask for first name and last name of the owner of the internet domain.</p>
<p>Is the solution that a human buys it on themselves, sells it to the company and the XYZ company announces the change to the internet domain provider?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>ICANN (the authority that regulates domain name registration) maintains the WHOIS standard, and all domain registrars (where you buy a domain) have to follow it.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en#whois.1.4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WHOIS Standard</a> has for a field for both Name and Organization :</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Registrant Name: EXAMPLE REGISTRANT<br />
Registrant Organization: EXAMPLE ORGANIZATION</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Foot-note n°<a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en#note4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">4</a> has this to say about those fields.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For the Registrant, Admin and Tech contact fields requiring a &quot;Name&quot; or &quot;Organization&quot;, the output must include either the name or organization (or both, if available).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For registration purposes (this is different from the commercial purposes where the answer from Trish would apply) they can do both (using an agent name) or either</p>

<h2>The same way any company acts</h2>
<p>Companies are legal entities that act through agents. The agents declare they act on behalf of the company, and with the backing of the company do the bidding of the company's directors.</p>
<h3>Practical thing: by telling them you are a company of course!</h3>
<p>When I ask the german registry &quot;Strato&quot; I can chose either &quot;private entity&quot; or &quot;company&quot;. In the latter case, I add the company name and tax ID in addition to the designated agent's name and the company address, as the following picture shows:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/n2z41.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/n2z41.png" alt="Strato website fields, after swapping to company registration" /></a></p>
<p>Most websites selling domains offer a similar field. If not, you will need to contact their customer support.</p>

<p>How you inform the registrar that the domain is owned by a company is a practical issue and therefore off-topic for this site.</p>
<p>From the <em>legal</em> perspective, all companies ultimately have to act via a natural person.</p>
<p>In <a href="/questions/tagged/england-and-wales" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;england-and-wales&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;england-and-wales&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="england-and-wales-container">england-and-wales</a>, the applicable rule is found in <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/section/43" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 43(1)</a> of the Companies Act 2006:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Under the law of England and Wales or Northern Ireland a contract may
be made—</p>
<p>(a) by a company, by writing under its common seal, or</p>
<p>(b) on behalf of a company, by a person acting under its authority,
express or implied.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&quot;Express&quot; authority to enter into contracts is derived from the company's constitution which sets out the powers and limitations of the directors (including any power to delegate authority to other people). Note however that the other party to the contract, if they acted in good faith, can rely on the contract even if the person purporting to act on the company's behalf was not authorised to do so. This rule is found in <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/section/40" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 40</a>.</p>
