How to participate in the auction

The auction is open to any natural or legal person residing in the EU with a verified MojeID account and to individuals from the EU with a verified electronic identity. Individuals from the Czech Republic are required to have a MojeID account linked to government systems with a minimum level of assurance of “substantial”. For individuals from EU countries, we require an electronic identity with a minimum level of assurance of “substantial” (according to eIDAS). For legal entities, a validated MojeID account is required.

Domain auctions are available in the Domain Browser , the system for managing .CZ domains. There is no need to deposit any funds in advance to view or actively participate in the auction. The payment of the amount for the priority right to register the domain is made by the auctioneer after the auction ends.

The Auction process

The domains to be auctioned are published in the Upcoming Auctions list 15 days before the auction starts. The domains are released for auction at 12:00, the standard auction duration is 9 hours, so the auction usually ends at 21:00 on the same day. The auction is extended if there is a bid in the last minutes of the auction. The auction may be extended until 9:00 a.m. the following day at the latest.

The starting price for the preferential right to register a domain is 100 CZK. Bids from auctioneers are made according to the so-called maximum amount that the auctioneer is willing to pay for the domain registration right. This amount is not public, the system automatically bids the smallest amount necessary to outbid other bidders. The minimum bid is predefined and is proportional to the current winning bid. The winner of the auction is the bidder who has the highest bid registered in the system at the close of the auction.

The winner of the auction has 7 days to pay for the preferential right to register the domain, with the payment to be made according to the instructions of CZ.NIC, z.s.p.o. After that, the winner of the auction has 7 days to register the domain. List of registrars supporting direct registration of a domain with priority right can be found here. The domain must be registered to the contact identifier that won the auction. Domain registration will only be allowed for this identifier.

If the auction winner fails to pay for the priority right, or fails to use the priority right (fails to register the domain), the respective auction will be repeated up to four times. If no bids are made during the auction, the domain will be released for regular registration after the auction ends.

What to watch out for

Bidding at the very end of the auction may be one of the bidders’ tactics. So if you are genuinely interested in the priority right to a domain, we recommend that you follow the auction to the end. While the auction is dynamically extended in the case of last minute bids, if you are outbid in the last few minutes of the auction and you are not watching the auction directly in the Domain Browser, you may not be able to increase your bid in time.

If the winning bidder does not pay for the priority right to register the domain by the deadline, the fee changes to a “contractual penalty” equal to the winning amount (but at least 1000 CZK) and the claim of this amount is enforced against the winning bidder.

If a bidder wins an auction and then fails to pay (the fee for the priority right of registration), the bidder will be prohibited from participating in future auctions.