Summary

Approval of a fee refund for New gTLD Program applicants who wish to withdraw their applications.

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Whereas, the TLD Application System (TAS) has been offline since 12 April 2012 due to a technical glitch and the application window will not be closed until TAS reopens for a period of at least five days.

Whereas, ICANN recognizes that, during the pendency of the glitch, applicants may have re-evaluated decisions to participate in the New gTLD Program.

Whereas, the Applicant Guidebook at Section 1.5.1 sets out a tiered refund schedule in the event that an applicant wishes to withdraw its application.

Resolved (2012.05.06.NG01), the New gTLD Program Committee directs the CEO to offer to applicants a full refund of the New gTLD Application fee actually paid to ICANN if the applicant wishes to withdraw its application prior to the date that ICANN publicly posts the identification of all TLD applications.

Implementation Actions

  •  Offer a full refund of the New gTLD Application fee actually paid to ICANN to those applicants wishing to withdraw their applications prior to the date ICANN publicly posts the identification of all applications
    • Responsible entity:  CEO
    • Due date:  None provided
    • Completion date:  7 May 2012

Rationale  

Out of recognition that some applicants within the first application round of the New gTLD Program may have re-evaluated their decision to participate in the Program during the time when the TLDApplication System has been offline, the New gTLD Program Committee has determined to offer full refunds of amounts paid toICANN if the applicants withdraw prior to the public identification of allTLD applications submitted in the first round. Under the Applicant Guidebook, the applicants would otherwise be entitled to a tiered refund schedule.

This action may have a minor negative impact on ICANN resources, to the extent that ICANN incurred costs in conducting an initial legal check of a withdrawing applicant, or incurs any fees for the return of funds. However, the fiscal impact of these occurrences is expected to be minimal. In line with ICANN's stated process for evaluation of applications, ICANN has not conducted further evaluation of the applications received to date, and therefore no other per-application fee costs have been incurred. On balance with the minimal fiscal impact to ICANN, this action is expected to have a minor positive impact on the ICANN community as it allows applicants an additional choice in response to their business needs. This action is not expected to impact the security, stability or resiliency of the domain name system.

Other Related Resolutions

Additional Information

Explanatory text does not modify or override Resolutions.  See Board Resolutions Page for more information.

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