2018-05-21 New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP

Notes/ Action Items

Action Items: 

1. WG members should review section 1.7: Application Evaluation/Criteria as preparation for the call on 29 May at 20:00 UTC (see attached section in PDF and Word)
2. Section 1.5.5: Add a question in section e.: “Under what conditions would an applicant be entitled to a full refund?”
3. Section 1.10.2:
1. Question: For those of us who weren't on this work track, how did the work track propose to address the problem faced by at least one RO, namely, that no registrars were willing to sign its RRA?  (It's my understanding that that situation has been resolved, but it raises the potential for anticompetitive behavior by registrars that don't like a particular RO's business model.)  Thanks. Answer: There weren’t specific conversations on that particular RO.  There were discussions of registries being able to seek an exemption if no registrars were willing to sign.
2. Question re: the recommendation “Registries must use only ICANN accredited registrars in registering domain names and may not discriminate among such accredited registrars, unless an exemption to the Registry Code of Conduct is granted”-- Any consideration of proposed changes to provisions in the Registrar SG charter concerning exemptions from the registry code of conduct?  Answer: The Work Track didn’t make the connection between proposed changes to the Registrar SG charter and the terminology used in the recommendation.  Could consider including this as a question in section e as to whether the recommendation should say, “unless the Registry Code of Conduct doesn’t apply” rather than “an exemption to the Registry Code of Conduct is granted”.
4. Preamble/Introduction: WG Co-Chairs will suggest some language to make it clear that a consensus call was not held, and put it out to the list for review examples of how we got to a general type of agreement.

Notes:

1. Roll Call/SOIs: No updates.

2. Review of the Initial Report (continued). * The purpose of this review is to ensure that preliminary outcomes and deliberations are accurately captured and written in an understandable manner. The WG Co-Chairs have sought to make clear that this exercise is not intended to re-open substantive discussions, which is better served by the submission of public comments and subsequently when reviewing public comments received.

As a reminder, please note that a resource page has been set up on the Wiki to track the distribution of Initial Report sections, which you can find here: https://community.icann.org/x/NwUhB. As you can see in the link, the following sections have been released:

1.2: Overarching Issues

1.4: Pre-Launch Activities

1.5: Application Submission

1.6: Application Processing

1.7: Application Evaluation/Criteria

1.10: Contracting

1.11: Pre-Delegation

1.12: Post-Delegation

-- Administrative Item:  Please limit your intervention on the specific items we are covering to 2 minutes and if a second intervention please try to keep it to 60-90 seconds.

Section 1.5: Application Submission (Application Fees; Variable Fees; Application Submission Period; Applicant Support; Terms & Conditions)

-- Caveat: Don’t tie ICANN down to restrictive conditions – jurisdiction of incorporation of a registrant.  In 2012 a certain number of registries deliberately registered in tax havens.

-- Make sure that we capture that a full refund is an option that is available.  Could add it as a question.  “Under what conditions would an applicant be entitled to a full refund?”

From the chat:

-- from Jim Prendergast to All Participants: for those not familiar - there was a graduated scale of refunds available to applicants depending on which stage they withdrew.  But by the time ICANN made post submission changes, the refunds available were for 50% or less of the $185k fee.  Thats not fair so there ws talk of ensure there would be a 100% refund if ICANN Changes the rules

Section 1.6: Application Processing (Application Queuing)

-- Question: Would there be any assurance with Digital Archery that there isn’t human intervention in setting the date of receipt?  Answer: Because it is a random drawing there isn’t expected to be human intervention.

-- Question: Would there be an acknowledgement sent to the applicant that the applicant was received?  Answer: In 2012 as soon as the applications were drawn it was made public.  The Work Track assumed it would be done in a similar manner.

-- Question: Would people be able to have a clear picture of the situation, processing, and what priorities are assigned?  Answer: The Work Track didn’t not discuss the system in this detail.  The Work Track expected that it would be similar to the first round where you could log in and look at the status.

-- Question: Can applicants choose which priority number to assign to which application? Answer: Not sure if the Work Track discussed this in detail.

Section 1.10.1 Base Registry Agreement

From the chat:

from Rubens Kuhl to All Participants: ICANN already sent the agreement in the governmental version for gov. applicants, there was no need to ask specifically for it.

-- In the 2012 round, to the extent that ICANN knew that one was a government applicant they were then given the alternate sections.

-- Possible dependencies on the Base Registry Agreement – Registry Agreement may need to be changed to reflect the policies adopted by other relevant PDPs impacting new gTLDs, the results of the CCT-RT Final Report as well as the final recommendations of this Working Group, including those adopted with respect to Geographic Names at the Top-Level in Work Track 5.

Section 1.10.2 Registrar Non-Discrimination / Registry/Registrar Standardization

From the chat:

-- from kristina rosette to All Participants:  Question: For those of us who weren't on this work track, how did the work track propose to address the problem faced by at least one RO, namely, that no registrars were willing to sign its RRA?  (It's my understanding that that situation has been resolved, but it raises the potential for anticompetitive behavior by registrars that don't like a particular RO's business model.)  Thanks. Answer: There weren’t specific conversations on that particular RO.  There were discussions of registries being able to seek an exemption if no registrars were willing to sign.

-- Question re: the recommendation “Registries must use only ICANN accredited registrars in registering domain names and may not discriminate among such accredited registrars, unless an exemption to the Registry Code of Conduct is granted”-- Any consideration of proposed changes to provisions in the Registrar SG charter concerning exemptions from the registry code of conduct?  Answer: The Work Track didn’t make the connection between proposed changes to the Registrar SG charter and the terminology used in the recommendation.  Could consider including this as a question in section e as to whether the recommendation should say, “unless the Registry Code of Conduct doesn’t apply” rather than “an exemption to the Registry Code of Conduct is granted”.

Section 1.11.1: Pre-Delegation (Registry System Testing)

-- Question: What was the modality of the demonstration and procedure to verify capabilities and if the applicant is not accepted can it provide an argument?  Answer: Did not close the possibility to provide self-certification.  It was ICANN decided what were the criteria that the registry had to provide and the Work Track is not suggesting changes to that procedure.

-- Question: Any case where that demonstration of this capability was rejected? Answer: Don’t think there were any that failed.  They all eventually passed, but were some benefits of the tests.  They were a mixture of some self-certification and some actual live tests.

-- Question: Who checks the demonstration and if it is a self-certification how was that verified?  Answer: There is text in the deliberation section that is applicable.  If there are questions or clarifications, or things that aren’t included, let us know.

-- Two dependencies: RSP Pre-Approval Program (Discussed in Section [1.2.6]) and Evolution of ICANN SLA Monitoring.

3. Next Meeting: 29 May, 20:00 UTC: WG members should review section 1.7: Application Evaluation/Criteria as preparation.