Motions 2024-04-18

Motion to Approve Supplemental Recommendations for the Non-Adopted New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP Recommendations

Submitted by: Paul McGrady

Seconded by: Jennifer Chung

WHEREAS,

1. The GNSO Council adopted the Final Report of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) PDP on 18 February 2021.
2. On 16 March 2023, the ICANN Board adopted the majority of the SubPro Outputs, as identified in Section A of the Scorecard, while designating a select set of recommendations as pending, identified in Section B of the Scorecard.
3. The GNSO Council established a small team to carefully review the pending SubPro recommendations and identify the best path forward to seek to resolve the issues that were preventing Board adoption of the pending recommendations.
4. On 21 September 2023, the GNSO Council resolved to approve a Clarifying Statement which was followed by the Council's approval of a second Clarifying Statement on 16 October 2023.
5. On the basis of the two Clarifying Statements, the ICANN Board was able to adopt a majority of the pending SubPro recommendations on 10 September 2023 and 26 October 2023.
6. In those same September (Board Statement) and October (Board Statement) resolutions, the Board also non-adopted a subset of recommendations pertaining to six topics (Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 18: Terms & Conditions, Topic 22: Registrant Protections, Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations, and Topic 32: Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanism)
7. The ICANN Bylaws foresee that in case of non-adoption, "the Council shall review the Board Statement for discussion with the Board as soon as feasible after the Council's receipt of the Board Statement".
8. The GNSO Council and ICANN Board elected to discuss the Board Statement, as foreseen under the ICANN Bylaws, during their joint session at ICANN78.
9. The GNSO Council convened a Small Team Plus, which included liaisons from the ICANN Board and participants from the GAC and ALAC, to seek to develop Supplemental Recommendations for the non-adopted recommendations.
10. The Small Team Plus provided numerous updates to the GNSO Council as the Supplemental Recommendations were developed, to better ensure that the Council was aware of the expected outcomes from the Small Team Plus.
11. During the Council’s February 2024 meeting, the Small Team Plus provided an update on the proposed language for all Supplemental Recommendations.
12. The Small Team Plus held a prep-week webinar in advance of ICANN79 in order to also inform the broader community of the proposed language for all Supplemental Recommendations.
13. During ICANN79, the Small Team Plus held a community consultation to gather feedback or suggestions on needed changes to any of the Supplemental Recommendations; no changes were identified.
14. On 01 April 2024, the Small Team Plus shared the final Supplemental Recommendations and explanations for the Supplemental Recommendations with the GNSO Council which are connected to the following topics: Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 18: Terms & Conditions, Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations, and Topic 32: Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanism.

RESOLVED,

1. The GNSO Council approves the Supplemental Recommendations for the non-adopted SubPro recommendations and instructs the GNSO Secretariat to transmit the Supplemental Recommendations to the ICANN Board.

Motion to Defer Request for Policy Status Report on Expiration Policies

Submitted by: Greg DiBiase

Seconded by: Jennifer Chung

WHEREAS,

1. In October 2020, the GNSO Council considered the timing to request a Policy Status Report (PSR) to conduct a review of the two Expiration Policies, the Expired Domain Deletion Policy (EDDP) and the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP)and agreed to defer consideration for 24 months given concerns about capacity;
2. In July 2022, the Council revisited the question of when to request a PSR andagreed that, prior to proceeding with a PSR or deferral, the GNSO Council should consult with registrars and ICANN Compliance to determine if there are any known issues or concerns with the two Expiration Policies that could warrant requesting a PSR;
3. On 1 November 2022, ICANN org provided areport on the Expiration Policies and presented the report to the GNSO Council during itsNovember 2022 meeting;
4. Following discussion of the ICANN orgreport, a small team of Councilors reviewed the report and the previous feedback from registrars and presented itsrecommendation to the GNSO Council during itsMarch 2023 meeting;
5. The GNSO Council agreed to the small team’s recommendation to request additional information from ICANN org regarding what expiration-related educational materials are currently published and whether additional information can be provided;
6. On 14 February 2024, ICANN org delivered asummary of the current educational materials on domain name renewal and expiration and presented it during the February 2024 meeting;
7. Having considered (i) the input from the Registrar Stakeholder Group, who was asked to flag substantial issues with the policies that would warrant a near team request for policy status report and did not note any issues, (ii) thereport from ICANN org, which noted confusion with key terms in the policy and registrant confusion with the auto-renew grace period and aftermarket activities, et.al., and (iii) thecatalog of available educational resources on domain name expiration and renewal, the GNSO Council determined that the Expiration Policies present no urgent need for policy work, and, accordingly, the Council will revisit the timing for a PSR request in five years, or sooner if the Council is informed that further policy work is needed before the conclusion of five years.

RESOLVED,

1. The GNSO Council adopts the motion to defer consideration of a Policy Status Report (PSR) for the Expedited Domain Deletion Policy (EDDP) and Expedited Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) for five years, noting, however, that if the Council is informed that further policy work is needed before the conclusion of five years, the Council will reconsider the PSR request at that time.
2. The GNSO Council leadership directs GNSO Policy Support Staff to notify ICANN org Global Domains & Services of the deferral of the PSR request on the Expiration Policies.