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Under the Affirmation of Commitments, ICANN is committed to performing a review of the New gTLD Program after it has been in operation for one year. As a result, the ICANN Board has requested advice from the GAC, CCNSO, GNSO, and the ALAC to assist with this review. This workshop explored how to establish the definition, measures and targets for competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice in the context of the domain name system.

A robust conversation happened around the Affirmation of Commitments, covering the points outlined below.

          This document affirms key commitments by DOC and ICANN, including:

• Ensure that decisions made related to the global technical coordination of the DNS are made in the public interest and are accountable and transparent;
• Preserve the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS;
• Promote competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice in the DNS marketplace; and
• Facilitate international participation in DNS technical coordination
  
  Promoting competition, consumer trust and consumer choice:
• ICANN will ensure that as it contemplates expanding the top-level domain space, the various issues that are involved (including competition, consumer protection, security, stability and resiliency, malicious abuse issues, sovereignty concerns, and rights protection) will be adequately addressed prior to implementation.
• If and when new gTLDs (whether in ASCII or other language character sets) have been in operation for one year, ICANN will organize a review that will examine the extent to which the introduction or expansion of gTLDs has promoted competition, consumer trust and consumer choice, as well as effectiveness of (a) the application and evaluation process, and (b) safeguards put in place to mitigate issues involved in the introduction or expansion.
• ICANN will organize a further review of its execution of the above commitments two years after the first review, and then no less frequently than every four years.
• The reviews will be performed by volunteer community members and the review team will be constituted and published for public comment, and will include the following (or their designated nominees): the Chair of the GAC, the CEO of ICANN, representatives of the relevant Advisory Committees and Supporting Organizations, and independent experts.
• Composition of the review team will be agreed jointly by the Chair of the GAC (in consultation with GAC members) and the CEO of ICANN. Resulting recommendations of the reviews will be provided to the Board and posted for public comment. The Board will take action within six months of receipt of the recommendations.
  
  This group has been tasked to begin preparation for the AoC review with focus on establishing definitions, measures and targets for competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice in the context of the DNS.
  
  Definitions:
• Competition is the availability of multiple suitable TLDs and multiple Registrars where registrants may seek their desired domain name at reasonable prices and terms.
• Consumer Trust is the perceived integrity of domain name registrations such that Internet users have confidence that a domain name is held to the advertised purpose and standards of the TLD operator, ICANN and relevant law.
• Consumer Choice is the availability of TLDs that offer competing propositions as to the purpose and integrity of their domain name registrants.