How long does a .gr assignment last?

Two years. The Greek regulator's Regulation 843/2/2018 states in article 9 that the exclusive right of use lasts two years from the date the Registration Declaration is submitted, and that it may be renewed indefinitely for successive periods.

What happens if I forget to renew?

On expiry the name is temporarily deactivated for fifteen days, with no decision from the regulator required. After those fifteen days it becomes available for anyone to register. That is exactly what happened to a client of mine: somebody else took it and listed it for sale at a thousand euros. He got it back five or six years later, when the new holder let it lapse.

What is the difference between holder and registrar?

The holder is the person or company the name is assigned to, the party with the right. The registrar is the one who takes the declarations and handles the process, meaning the provider you bought it from. The two are constantly confused and they are not the same thing.

I pay for it, so surely I am the holder?

Not necessarily. Who pays the bill and who appears as holder in the registry are two independent things. It is not unusual to be paying faithfully for a name that is registered in your web developer's name.

How do I check who the holder is?

For .gr and .ελ, through the Greek registry's lookup. For international extensions, through your registrar's lookup service. If the details show as redacted, ask your registrar for written confirmation of who the holder is.

Has that lock not been abolished?

Not yet. The GNSO Council voted on 12/03/2025 to recommend removing it and replacing it with a 720 hour lock on newly created or transferred names, but the recommendation still needs approval and a new policy has to be written. The policy in force today still carries the sixty days.

What do I do if the domain is in someone else's name?

Ask for it in writing, calmly, and before a disagreement about something else has a chance to start. It is one of the few cases where postponing genuinely costs, because later usually means something has already gone wrong.

Domain ownership: holder, registrar, and the rules for .gr and .ελ

Let me tell you a story I have heard in so many variations that it stopped surprising me a while ago.

A business, fifteen years in the market. A site that works perfectly well. They want to change developer, because the previous one retired, moved, changed careers, or simply stopped replying. The new one asks for access to the domain name. And that is when they discover that company.gr, which they have been paying for across fifteen years, is not in their name.

It is not theft. It almost never is. It is that in 2011 somebody said “don’t worry about it, I’ll sort it”, and sorted it. In their own name.

Let us clear up two words everybody mixes up

The Greek Regulation 843/2/2018 uses two terms that sound related and are not.

The holder is the natural or legal person the name is assigned to. The party with the right. You, ideally.

The registrar is the one who receives registration declarations and handles the process. The shop you bought it from.

The registrar is the travel agency. The holder is the person who travels. If the ticket carries a different name, it does not matter who paid.

And here is the trap that catches most people: who pays and who is the holder are two independent things. You can pay diligently for fifteen years for a name that is not yours. And you usually find out on the day you want to take it with you.

Two years, and fifteen days of grace

Two facts worth knowing, because they are written down and not a matter of interpretation.

Article 9(1) provides that the exclusive right of use acquired through the assignment of a .gr or .ελ name “lasts for two (2) years from the date the Registration Declaration is submitted to the Registry”. Article 9(4) adds that “the assignment may be renewed indefinitely for successive assignment periods”.

And article 9(9), the harsh one: on expiry of the exclusive right of use, “the Domain Name is temporarily deactivated for fifteen (15) days without a prior decision of the regulator”. After those fifteen days, the name becomes available to whoever asks for it.

Fifteen days. About the length of a summer holiday. If the renewal notice goes to an email address nobody reads any more, the window closes without anyone noticing. And there is no “but we paid for it all those years”. The registry does not read sentiment.

Something I watched happen at close range

I am not writing this to frighten you. I am writing it because it happened, and because every step of it was predictable.

A client of mine had registered an email address years earlier. In time he stopped using it, the way we all eventually abandon an address that was once our main one. The renewal notices kept arriving there, dutifully. Nobody read them.

He found out the name had expired in the worst possible way: when the site went down. Not from a warning. From an absence.

He rushed to renew. The fifteen days had passed. The name was already registered to somebody else, who had put it up for sale. A thousand euros.

He did get it back in the end. Five or six years later, when the new holder grew tired of sitting on it with no takers and let it lapse.

Five or six years, over an email address nobody opened any more. And note this: he did not get it back because he was in the right. He got it back because he was lucky.

The lock nobody sees coming

For international extensions, the .com and the rest, there is an ICANN rule that catches people unprepared at exactly the wrong moment.

The Transfer Policy in force, updated 21/02/2024 and compulsory from 21/08/2025, says: “The Registrar must impose a 60-day inter-registrar transfer lock following a Change of Registrant”. So after a change of holder, the name locks for sixty days and will not move to another registrar.

There is a way out, but it has a deadline: the holder can opt out before the change of registrant. Not after. And “after” is precisely when everyone thinks of it.

The scenario that makes this hurt: you finally get the name into your own name, you are pleased, and then you find you cannot move it to a registrar of your choosing for two months. So the correct order is transfer first, change of holder second, or an opt out requested from the start.

You will hear that this has been abolished. It has not, at least not yet. The GNSO Council voted on 12/03/2025 to recommend scrapping the sixty days and replacing it with a 720 hour lock on newly created or transferred names. A recommendation, though, which needs approval and a new policy drafted. Until that happens, the sixty days stand. Mind what you read, and mind when it was written.

Let us check it, now, in two minutes

You do not need to ask anybody, and it may be better to look before you ask.

For .gr and .ελ: go to the Greek registry’s lookup and search your name. You will see the holder, the registrar and the expiry date.

For .com and the rest: through your registrar’s lookup service. A lot of details are now redacted for data protection reasons, so if you see no name, do not draw a conclusion. Ask the registrar for written confirmation of who the holder is. A serious registrar sends it the same day.

Three things to look at, in this order: who is the holder, when it expires, and which email address the renewal notice goes to. Everyone forgets the third, and the third is the one that burns you.

And if it is not you?

Stay calm. In the vast majority of cases there is no bad intent, there is a decision from 2011 that nobody revisited.

Ask for it in writing, in the tone the truth allows: you want the name in the company’s name because that is where it belongs, not because you are planning to leave. Most colleagues will do it the same day, and quite a few will tell you they had forgotten.

But do it now, while everything is fine. Because if you leave it, you will remember it on the day you have already fallen out over something else, and then that exact same request reads completely differently.

The domain name is the one part of your digital presence that money cannot rebuild. The site can be rewritten. The copy can be rewritten. The photographs can be taken again. If somebody else takes company.gr, they have taken it. And if it ever comes back to you, as it did for my client, it will be five years later and by luck.

What else has to be in your hands, beyond the name, is in your site’s folder: nine things, with their proper names. And if you would rather go through it together before speaking to anybody, tell me.

Who actually holds your domain