Registration Policy

Effective date: 20 July 2026.

This Policy forms part of the .GM Legal Terms. By requesting, registering, renewing, transferring, or managing a .GM domain, the Registrant and the submitting Registrar accept the current Policy and Legal Terms.

All requests are reviewed and assigned a Registry status. An Open or Available result is not a guarantee of registration and may change after administrative review.

Definitions

Registrant: the individual or legal entity granted the conditional right to use the domain name.

Registrar: an accredited organisation that submits and manages requests for the Registrant and provides day-to-day customer support.

Registry / GM-NIC: the .GM ccTLD manager and Registry administration.

Supporting Organization / Cypdom: the organisation handling most day-to-day support, billing, and communication for International Registrars under agreement with GM-NIC.

How to Register

New registrations must be submitted through an accredited Registrar. GM-NIC handles national/local Registry matters. Cypdom handles International Registrar matters and international Reserved-name evaluations unless GM-NIC directs otherwise.

Eligibility and Registrant Identity

Local and international individuals, organisations, companies, public bodies, and rights holders may submit requests where they have a legitimate purpose or connection to the requested name and comply with the applicable category, documentation, and legal requirements.

The true Registrant or owner must be identified. The Registrant must remain reachable through an email address not controlled solely by the Registrar unless GM-NIC has approved another arrangement.

GM-NIC or Cypdom may request proof of identity, incorporation, trademark rights, licence, authority, local connection, or other supporting documentation.

Domain Structure and Format

New Registry registrations are normally made at the second level, for example name.gm. Special third-level structures may be approved by GM-NIC for government, academic, public-service, or other defined purposes.

A second-level label may contain letters a-z, digits 0-9, and hyphens, must not begin or end with a hyphen, and may contain up to 63 characters. Internationalised or special-character names are available only where specifically supported and approved.

Reserved infrastructure and public-service labels, including forms such as com, edu, gov, mil, org, co, and ac, may not be registered as ordinary second-level names.

Registry Status Categories

Open: generally available to request, but still subject to final review.

Reserved: requires manual evaluation and may be classified Standard, Premium, UltraPremium, strategically protected, or subject to documentation, licence, price, or use conditions.

Blocked: restricted for legal, official, technical, security, cultural, brand-protection, prohibited-content, or administrative reasons. A written request for manual consideration may be submitted where a legitimate claim exists.

Evaluation and Final Approval

Evaluation may consider legitimate rights, local or international status, commercial character, public profile, company scale, sector sensitivity, brand similarity, generic or descriptive value, comparable domain values, public interest, and the stability and integrity of the .GM namespace.

Initial activation and final policy approval are separate. GM-NIC or Cypdom may request information, reclassify, approve, reject, suspend, or revoke a request or registration in accordance with the Legal Terms.

Registrar Responsibilities

Registrars must keep Registrant, administrative, billing, technical, and nameserver data accurate; preserve evidence of authority where required; maintain monitored support and abuse contacts; communicate material Registry notices; and avoid promising a name before required evaluation is complete.

Registrars must make the current .GM Policy and Legal Terms available to their customers and obtain the authority needed to submit personal and company information to the Registry.

Fees, Renewal, and Payment

Registration and renewal fees are separate from one-time Premium administration fees, exceptional-domain sales prices, owner/admin name-change fees, and other chargeable Registry services. The current Fee/Billing document supplied to the Registrar controls the applicable amounts.

Domains may be suspended, not renewed, or revoked for non-payment. International Registrar transactions may be held where the required prepaid balance is insufficient.

Prohibited and Regulated Use

A domain must not be registered or used unlawfully, deceptively, abusively, or in a manner that infringes third-party rights, threatens security or DNS stability, impersonates another party, or violates applicable licensing requirements.

GM-NIC may require additional approval or licences for regulated activities, including gambling, financial, health, public-authority, or other sensitive services directed at The Gambia.

Abuse Reporting and Emergency Action

Reports of phishing, malware, spam, fraud, unlawful content, impersonation, rights infringement, or other serious misuse may be sent to admin@nic.gm. GM-NIC may request evidence and may temporarily suspend or restrict a domain where reasonably necessary to protect users, the DNS, the Registry, or comply with law or a competent authority.

Appeals

A written appeal against a Registry refusal, reclassification, suspension, transfer or revocation may be submitted to admin@nic.gm within 30 days of notice. An appeal does not automatically stay an urgent security, legal, or abuse action.