Terms and Conditions

These terms take effect on 1 December 2026. Until then, the current terms and conditions apply.

1. About these terms

These terms apply to everyone who uses nameshift.com, the domain landing pages Nameshift hosts, and our dashboard, apps and API (together: the platform). They are made up of:

Part A, general terms for everyone;
Part B, for buyers;
Part C, for sellers;
Part D, for auctions;
the fee schedule on our commission page, which is part of these terms.

If parts conflict, the more specific part wins: Part D over Parts B and C, and Parts B and C over Part A. Our privacy policy explains how we handle personal data.

You accept these terms when you create an account, send an inquiry or offer, buy a domain or place a bid. You can download and store them from this page at any time. The English version is the binding version; translations are for convenience.

Part A — General terms

2. Who we are

The platform is run by Nameshift BV, Steenplaetsstraat 6, 2288 AA Rijswijk, the Netherlands, registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KvK) under number 95363017, VAT NL867101623B01. You can reach us at contact@nameshift.com. This address is also our single point of contact for users and for authorities under the EU Digital Services Act; you can write to us in English or Dutch.

3. What Nameshift does

Nameshift is an online marketplace for domain names. Sellers list their domains on the platform, and Nameshift sells them to buyers in its own name: when a sale is agreed, Nameshift buys the domain from the seller and sells it to the buyer. The buyer's contract is with Nameshift, the buyer pays Nameshift and receives the invoice from Nameshift, and Nameshift pays the seller the sale price minus its commission once the domain has been transferred.

Sellers set their prices and can negotiate with buyers through the platform, but an agreed price is always a sale by Nameshift to the buyer and a purchase by Nameshift from the seller. Nameshift does not own the domains listed until such a sale is agreed.

4. Who can use the platform

You must be 18 or older and able to enter into a binding contract. If you act for a company, you confirm you are authorised to bind it.

You may not use the platform if you, or the company you act for, are subject to sanctions of the European Union, the United Nations, the United Kingdom or the United States, or are located in a country or region subject to comprehensive sanctions. We may screen users against sanctions lists and refuse, pause or cancel transactions to comply with sanctions law.

5. Your account

Keep your account details accurate and up to date, and your login details secret. Use two-factor authentication where we offer it.
One person or company per account. A company can give several users access to its account; it is responsible for what they do.
You are responsible for what happens through your account unless you could not reasonably have prevented it. Tell us straight away if you suspect someone else is using it.
We may ask you to verify your identity or company, for example before paying out to you or before a high bid (sections 18 and 25).
You can close your account at any time in your account settings or by emailing us. Transactions already agreed are completed first.

6. Acceptable use

You may not use the platform to:

break the law or infringe the rights of others, including trademarks;
list or buy domains that you know or should know are stolen or that you are not entitled to sell;
mislead other users, for example with false bids, fake offers or false information;
bid on your own auctions or have others do so for you;
steer buyers or sellers you met through Nameshift to complete the deal outside the platform to avoid our commission;
send spam or unsolicited messages;
interfere with the platform, scrape it at scale, or get around security or usage limits, except through our API within its limits.

7. Listings, reports and moderation

What we do not allow. Listings and landing pages may not contain or promote illegal content, infringe trademarks or other rights, impersonate others or be used for phishing, malware or fraud.

How we check. We do not review every listing before it goes live. We act on reports and on our own findings. Decisions to remove listings or restrict accounts are taken by people, not solely by automated systems.

Reporting a listing. Anyone can report a listing or landing page they believe is illegal or infringes their rights by emailing contact@nameshift.com with the subject "Report". Include the domain, why you think it is illegal or infringing, your name and email address (unless the report concerns certain sexual-abuse offences), and a statement that you make the report in good faith. We confirm receipt, decide carefully and without undue delay, and tell you what we decided. Trademark owners can use the same address; we can also point you to the UDRP and similar procedures for disputes about the registration itself.

What we can do. Depending on how serious and how clear-cut the problem is, we can: warn you, remove or hide a listing, suspend offers or payouts on a transaction, restrict your account, or close it. We take into account the interests of everyone involved and act proportionately.

Our reasons. When we take any of these measures, we tell you which measure we took, why, which facts it is based on, and which rule or law applies, unless the law forbids us to tell you. You can ask us to reconsider by replying to that message; we review it and tell you the outcome.

8. Suspending and ending accounts

We can restrict, suspend or close an account for a serious or repeated breach of these terms, for fraud, if the law requires it, or to protect other users. We give reasons as described in section 7.

For sellers, we tell you at least 30 days in advance, with reasons, before we close your account completely, unless we must close it sooner by law, for a reason that legally justifies immediate termination, or because you repeatedly breached these terms.

9. Complaints

If you are unhappy with our service or a decision we took, email contact@nameshift.com. We confirm receipt and aim to give a substantive answer within 14 days. If we need longer, we tell you why and when you can expect our answer.

10. Intellectual property

The platform, its design and software belong to Nameshift or its licensors. You may not copy or reuse them except as these terms or the law allow.

You keep the rights to what you upload, such as listing descriptions and logos. You give us a free, non-exclusive licence to use it worldwide for as long as it is on the platform, to run and promote your listings and the platform, including on partner sites and in search engines.

11. Availability

We do our best to keep the platform available and working, but we cannot guarantee it is always available or error-free. We may carry out maintenance and change features, and where a change materially affects sellers we follow section 13.

12. Liability

We are liable for damage caused by our intent or gross negligence, or that of our management.
Otherwise, our liability for any event or series of related events is limited to direct damage and to the higher of: the fees and commission we received from you in the 12 months before the event, or €500.
We are not liable for indirect damage, such as lost profit or missed sales, except in the cases of the first bullet.
We are not liable for the content that sellers put in their listings and landing pages, except where we breach our own obligations under these terms.
Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, or the mandatory rights you have as a consumer.

13. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms, for example for new features or new laws. We announce changes by email and on this page at least 15 days before they take effect, and longer if you need time to adapt. Changes do not apply to transactions already agreed. If you do not agree, you can close your account before the change takes effect, free of charge. We may make changes with immediate effect only where the law requires it or to deal with an unforeseen and imminent danger of fraud, malware, spam or security breaches.

Earlier versions of these terms remain available in the version history on this page.

14. Applicable law and courts

These terms and every contract under them are governed by Dutch law. Disputes go to the competent court in The Hague.

If you are a consumer, this does not take away the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and you can always bring proceedings in the courts of that country; we can only bring proceedings against you there.

15. Other provisions

We can communicate with you by email and through your account.
If a provision of these terms turns out to be invalid, the rest remains in force, and the invalid provision is replaced by a valid one that comes as close as possible to its purpose.
You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our consent. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another company that takes over the platform, after notifying you.
We are not liable for failures caused by circumstances beyond our control, such as outages of registrars, registries, payment providers or hosting providers.

Part B — Buying a domain

16. Offers and Buy Now

Who you buy from. You always buy from Nameshift. The seller of a listing sets the price and can negotiate with you, but your contract of sale is with Nameshift BV.
Inquiries and offers. You can ask about a domain or make an offer. A seller can set a minimum offer. Once your offer is accepted, you have bought the domain from Nameshift at that price; the purchase binds you until the deadline for payment shown with the acceptance. An inquiry or negotiation without activity for four weeks closes automatically.
Buy Now. Buying at the listed price is a binding purchase from Nameshift.
Prices are shown in the currency of the listing. Where VAT applies, we show and charge it on your invoice. Buyers pay no fee to Nameshift on top of the price of a direct purchase.

17. Payment

You pay Nameshift, and you receive the invoice from Nameshift. Our payment providers process card and other payments; we do not receive or store full card details. If you do not pay before the payment deadline, the purchase lapses and the domain can be sold to someone else.

18. Transfer and confirmation

After your payment is received, the transfer starts within 5 business days, either directly from the seller to you or through Nameshift's registrar account. We guide you through the steps, such as using an authorisation code or accepting the transfer.

When the domain is in your control, you confirm the transfer in your dashboard. If you do not confirm or report a problem within 7 days after the domain was delivered, we treat the transfer as confirmed.

19. Buyer protection and refunds

The seller is only paid after the transfer to you is confirmed. If the transfer cannot be completed, for example because the seller does not deliver within the deadline, cannot prove they hold the domain, or the domain turns out to be stolen, we cancel the sale and refund your payment in full.

If you reverse a payment with your bank or card issuer (a chargeback) after the domain was transferred to you, you remain liable for the price and for the costs this causes, and we may suspend your account until it is resolved.

20. Your right of withdrawal as a consumer

If you buy as a consumer, you have the statutory right to withdraw from your purchase within 14 days of buying, without giving a reason, by telling us by email. Before the transfer starts, we ask whether you want it to start within those 14 days. If you ask for that and confirm that you understand you then lose the right of withdrawal once the transfer is complete, the right ends when the transfer is complete; if you withdraw while the transfer is in progress, you pay a proportional amount for what has already been done. If you withdraw after the domain was transferred to you, you must transfer it back before you are refunded. We refund you within 14 days of your withdrawal, using the payment method you used.

For Nameshift's own paid services to consumers, such as a paid auction or an appraisal, the same 14-day right applies; if you ask us to start the service straight away, you lose it once the service has been fully performed.

21. Domains held for you

Sometimes a domain is first transferred into Nameshift's registrar account and then made available to you. We hold it for you; you can move it to a registrar of your choice. We remind you to do so. If you have not moved it within 10 months, we give you 30 days' notice by email, after which we may let the registration lapse. If the registration needs renewing while we hold it, we may ask you to pay the registry's renewal fee first.

Part C — Selling a domain

22. Listing a domain

You may only list domains you hold and are entitled to sell, that are not subject to a dispute, lien or pending legal claim, and whose sale does not infringe anyone's trademark or other rights. You remain responsible for keeping the domain registered and renewed until the sale is completed.
Your listing price and minimum offer must be real: a buyer who pays the listed price must be able to get the domain.
If you point your domain to Nameshift's nameservers, we show a sales landing page on it. What we show on it is set by Nameshift; it carries no third-party advertising.

23. Fees and commission

For every completed sale, Nameshift pays you the sale price minus our commission, set out in the fee schedule on our commission page. The rate depends on the type of domain (gTLD or ccTLD), whether the domain uses Nameshift's nameservers, your number of sales that month, and how the domain was sold (for example by auction).
If more than one rate could apply, we charge the lowest. We may agree individual rates with a seller, for example for large portfolios, and reward points can lower your commission to a minimum of 2%.
The commission is deducted from the sale price before payout. Paid services, such as a reserve-price auction, are charged as shown when you order them.
We announce changes to the fee schedule at least 15 days in advance (section 13). They do not apply to sales already agreed.

24. Sales and transfers

By listing a domain, you offer it for sale to Nameshift for resale on the platform. When a buyer pays your listed price, or an offer is accepted at your price, Nameshift buys the domain from you at that price minus our commission, and sells it to the buyer in its own name. This is binding on you.

Once the buyer has paid, you must start the transfer within 5 business days and follow the transfer steps, such as providing the authorisation code. If you fail to deliver, we may cancel the sale and refund the buyer, and we may charge you the commission we would have received and restrict your account.

Our purchase from you depends on the sale to the buyer going through. If the buyer lawfully withdraws or the sale to the buyer is cancelled for a reason that is not yours, our purchase from you is cancelled too: no commission is charged, any payout is reversed or set off, and a domain that was already transferred is returned to you.

25. Verification and payouts

Before we can pay you, you complete our verification: for companies a company check, for individuals an identity check, through our verification provider. The name on your bank account must match.
We pay out the sale price minus our commission after the buyer has confirmed the transfer (section 18). You choose how often: immediately after each sale, weekly, every second Monday, monthly or quarterly.
Local bank payouts are free; for international (SWIFT) payouts we deduct the fee shown in your dashboard. We do not make payouts smaller than that fee.
We may set off amounts you owe us against payouts, and hold a payout while a transaction is disputed, being investigated for fraud, or reversed by the buyer's bank.

26. Invoices and taxes

Nameshift invoices the buyer in its own name. For our purchase from you, you agree that Nameshift draws up the invoice in your name and on your behalf (self-billing), showing the sale price and our commission; you do not issue a separate invoice for these sales. Check each invoice and tell us within 14 days if something is wrong. You are responsible for the taxes on your sale to us and for giving us correct tax details, such as your VAT number.

27. How listings are ranked

Search results on Nameshift are ordered by how well a domain matches the search: exact matches first, then domains whose name and then description contain the search terms, and then domains with a similar meaning. Users can change the order with the sort options, for example by price. No one can pay for a higher position, and no seller gets a better position because of their commission rate or relationship with Nameshift.

28. Data about your sales

You have access in your dashboard to the data about your listings, inquiries, offers and sales. The data we process about buyers is described in our privacy policy. Once you receive a buyer's details, you may use them only to handle that inquiry or sale.

29. Affiliates

If you take part in our affiliate programme, you receive the share of our commission shown in the affiliate programme for the sales and payments made by sellers or buyers you referred. We can end the programme or your participation with 30 days' notice; earned commission is paid out.

Part D — Auctions

30. Taking part

Bids are binding. The highest valid bid when the auction ends wins.
A bid placed in the last 5 minutes extends the auction by 3 minutes, so everyone can respond.
Before placing a bid of 1,000 or more in the auction's currency, you verify your phone number.
Sellers may not bid on their own auctions, directly or through others. We may cancel bids we have reason to believe are not genuine.
If you place a bid by obvious mistake (for example a typing error in the amount), contact us straight away; we may cancel it.

31. Reserve price and outcome

A seller can set a reserve price (the lowest price they will sell for, hidden from bidders) or a minimum bid, not both. Auctions without a reserve are free for the seller; a reserve-price auction costs the fee shown when you set it up.
If there are no bids, or the reserve price is not met, the auction ends without a sale.
Otherwise the winner receives an order and pays as described in section 17; the sale then follows Parts B and C. Auction sales carry the auction commission in the fee schedule. There is no buyer premium.
If the winner does not pay before the deadline, the sale lapses and we may restrict the winner's account.