.IT Domain Registration Guide (Italy)

The .IT extension is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Italy. Managed by the Italian registry (Registro .it), this extension is highly popular but demands strict adherence to European eligibility rules, accurate legal entity classification, and explicit legal declarations during registration.

Below are the operational and technical guidelines needed to manage .IT domains within the mybox wiki.

Local Presence and Trustee Service

To register a .IT domain, the domain owner (Registrant) must have a valid local presence-meaning citizenship, residence, or commercial headquarters-within a member state of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA), the Vatican, San Marino, or Switzerland.

• Native EU/EEA Presence: If your client meets this requirement, they must provide their local address and a specific national tax identifier. For Italian citizens, this is the 16-character Codice Fiscale. For Italian companies, it is the Partita IVA (VAT number). For non-Italian EU residents, an official document number (such as an ID card or Passport number) or a local corporate registration/VAT number must be supplied.
• The mybox Trustee Service: If the client resides outside the permitted European zones, mybox offers a Trustee Service to satisfy the local presence requirement by assigning a local representative. Registrations utilizing a trustee are subject to a manual validation process that can take up to 3 business days.

Mandatory Legal and Privacy Declarations

The Italian registry operates under strict legal frameworks. When submitting an application through our system, the client must explicitly acknowledge and accept several mandatory legal declarations representing the registrant’s liability:

1. Assumption of Liability: A declaration confirming that the owner fulfills the local residency/citizenship requirements and that the domain name does not infringe on third-party legal, corporate, or trademark rights.
2. Data Processing for Registration: Consent authorizing the registry to process personal data strictly for registration and database management purposes.
3. Data Processing for Diffusion: Consent regarding the processing of data for registry directory distribution.
4. Dispute Resolution Acceptance: Total acceptance of the official Italian Registry dispute resolutions, arbitration policies, and legal jurisdiction terms.

Entity Types and WHOIS Privacy Rules

The registry requires every registrant to be categorized by their legal entity type. This classification directly impacts whether the client’s contact information can be hidden from the public WHOIS directory.

• Individuals (Natural Persons): Full WHOIS privacy is strictly permitted. Private individuals can opt to hide their personal data and address from public query tools.
• Corporate & Legal Entities: This category includes companies, freelancers, non-profit organizations, and public bodies. WHOIS privacy is completely forbidden for these types. The registry mandates that corporate names, business addresses, and tax details remain fully visible to the public.

Domain Renewal

• No Explicit Renewals: The standard manual renewal command is completely disabled by the Italian registry.
• Billing System: .IT domains can only be renewed by ensuring their management mode is set to Auto-Renew within the system prior to the expiration timeframe. If a domain is explicitly set to expire or left unconfigured, the registry will gracefully terminate the domain at its expiration date.

Domain Transfer

Moving a .IT domain to mybox requires a standard authorization code (AuthCode/AuthInfo) generated by the current registrar.

• The Pending Window: Once a transfer request is initiated with a valid code, the losing registrar is granted a 5-day window to approve or reject the request. If the losing registrar takes no explicit action within those 5 days, the registry automatically approves the transfer on their behalf.
• Expiration Behavior After Transfer: Unlike generic extensions (like .COM), a successful transfer changes the domain’s expiration date exactly to the date the transfer operation concluded + 1 year, rather than simply adding 12 months to the previous expiration date.

TLD Technical Specifications

• Domain Name Length: Between 3 and 63 characters.
• DNS Prerequisites: The registry requires that name servers are fully active and properly respond with valid SOA, NS, and A records for the zone before the domain can successfully pass registration validation. If the DNS servers do not respond correctly during the registry’s automated check, the registration will fail.
• Character Restrictions: No abbreviations or truncated data are permitted in the official Registrant or Administrative contact names. Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) are fully supported.