Buy .hr Domain Name

The regulation splits second-level names in two. Free names may be obtained only by legal persons registered in Croatia and by natural persons with a self-employed activity registered there; the registrar is CARNET itself. Paid names may be obtained by legal persons established in an EU member state and by natural persons who are EU citizens holding a Croatian personal identification number (OIB). Applicants outside those two groups cannot register at the second level.

Not at the second level. The provision on paid names narrows applicants to two groups: legal persons established in the EU, and EU citizens holding a Croatian OIB. By contrast, the provision the same regulation devotes to lower-level names says of .com.hr that «all legal and natural persons» may apply. So if you are entering the Croatian market from outside the EU, .com.hr is the zone that fits.

Legal persons registered in Croatia and natural persons with a self-employed activity registered in Croatia are entitled to one free second-level name to establish their virtual identity. The chosen name must contain the business name entered in the competent register, its abbreviated form, or an abbreviation built from the initials of a multi-part name. State bodies and units of local and regional self-government may register more than one free name with the Commission's approval.

Under article 11, free names are registered for one year and may be renewed for each following year. Paid names may be registered, at the user's choice, for one, two or five years, and the registration may be extended at the holder's request for a further period of the same or a different length. Renewal of a name already registered may be refused only on the grounds set out in the regulation, so the right to renew is protected.

Under article 13 a name may be between one and 63 characters. It may use the letters of the Croatian and English alphabets (case is not distinguished), the digits 0 to 9 and the hyphen; a hyphen may be neither the first nor the last character and may not appear twice in a row. Names with diacritics (č, ć, đ, š, ž) can be registered. One- and two-letter second-level names are possible, but only as paid registrations.

The regulation contains its own arbitration rules. A third party may start proceedings by asserting that three conditions are met together: the name is identical or confusingly similar to a name to which it holds a right; the holder has no right or legitimate interest in it; and the name was registered contrary to the principle of good faith. The outcome may transfer the name to the applicant or delete it, and while arbitration is running CARNET may make no administrative or technical change to the name.

The regulation gives CARNET the power to deactivate a name temporarily. The listed grounds include a request from the National CERT, requests from other competent authorities, and serious suspicion that the name was registered contrary to the regulation or that its registration or use infringes third-party rights. The decision sets a deadline for remedying the defects, and the deactivation lasts until the instruction is followed or the disputed issues are settled.

Both sit under the same national regulation, but at different levels and behind different doors. .hr is a second-level name and requires an EU connection. .com.hr belongs to what the regulation calls lower-level domains and is open to all legal and natural persons. On term, both follow the rules for paid registrations: one, two or five years.