News & Updates

LegitScript has submitted a letter to Nominet, the registry that oversees the .uk top-level domain space, regarding Nominet’s policies on rogue Internet pharmacies. The letter was in response to Nominet’s comment process regarding how .uk domain names engaged in criminal activities should be dealt with.

Along with our letter, we notified Nominet about 100 rogue Internet pharmacies in the .uk domain name space. (There are more; we chose 100 as a sample.) Our letter states:

These .uk rogue Internet pharmacies operate in clear violation of the laws where they do business. In some cases, this includes operating in violation of UK law: websites such as cheapcialis.org.uk simply sell unregulated medicines without a prescription or valid pharmacy license. In other cases, the website may claim to be operating legally under UK laws and regulations, but also actively markets to other jurisdictions where it sells prescription drugs or anabolic steroids without a prescription in direct violation of that jurisdiction’s drug safety laws and regulations.

Our letter also noted that of the 100 rogue .UK Internet pharmacies that we notified Nominet about:

• 28 are falsely registered to individuals claiming to be a “non-trading entity” when the websites are clearly engaged in commercial activity. (If a .uk domain name is for private use, the Registrants can have their personal information kept private.)
• 79 of the domain names are registered to someone outside of the UK. This is problematic because the use of a .UK domain name may give patients a false assurance that the drugs are actually from a licensed pharmacy in the United Kingdom.

As to this last point, consider trusted-pharmacy.co.uk. It has a UK phone number and – as the domain name suggests – attempts to market itself as a trusted UK pharmacy. But in fact it is registered to “Private Person” in “Tashkent, Uzbekistan” and the website itself is an affiliate of Rx-Partners, a criminal organization operating primarily out of Russia. The website sells unregulated drugs, does not require a prescription, and is not dispensing from a UK pharmacy. (As to whether it actually has a UK connection, that’s a subject for another blog entirely. (To the non-existent Jessica Eagloff supposedly of the UK: This means you. [No, wait, you don’t exist. Even though Rx-Partners claims that you do.])

LegitScript’s letter encourages Nominet to adopt clear and unambiguous policies requiring Registrars to prohibit the use of their services by .UK domain name registrants engaged in the illicit sale of prescription drugs.

The rogue Internet pharmacies that we cited as examples to Nominet, their affiliate networks and their Registrars are below. (Note: “Country” refers to the country where the WhoIs registrant claims to be located.)