Historical Resolution Tracking Feature » 2008-01-23 - Proposals to Address Domain Tasting and Compliance Report on Network Solutions' Domain Reservation Activities
Important note: The explanatory text provided through this database (including the summary, implementation actions, identification of related resolutions, and additional information) is an interpretation or an explanation that has no official authority and does not represent the purpose behind the Board actions, nor does any explanations or interpretations modify or override the Resolutions themselves. Resolutions can only be modified through further act of the ICANN Board.
2008-01-23 - Proposals to Address Domain Tasting and Compliance Report on Network Solutions' Domain Reservation Activities
Board encourages budgetary process to include transaction fees for all domains added to discourage domain tasting.
- Community discussion and approval of fee.
- Responsible entity: ICANN Staff
- Due date: None provided
- Completion date: 26 June 2008
Whereas, the current version of all gTLD registry contracts provides for a five-calendar-day Add Grace period (AGP) following the initial registration of a domain during which a domain may be deleted and the sponsoring Registrar will be credited for the amount of the registration fee (see,e.g.,http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/appendix-07-01mar06.htm);
Whereas, the AGP was originally created to allow domain names that had been accidentally registered to be cancelled;
Whereas, the practice of "domain tasting," by which names are registered and then deleted during the AGP, has grown at a very great rate since 2005, with tens of millions of domains registered and deleted each month;
Whereas, it is apparent that the AGP is being used for purposes for which it was not intended;
Whereas, abuse of the AGP is, in the opinion of the majority of respondents whose statements were collected by the GNSO Ad Hoc Group on Domain Name Tasting (4 October 2007 report), producing disadvantages in the form of consumer confusion and potential fraud that outweigh the benefits of the AGP;
Whereas, the GNSO Council on 31 October 2007 resolved to launch a PDP on Domain Tasting and to encourage staff to apply ICANN's fee collections to names registered and subsequently de-registered during the AGP;
Whereas, it is the Board's view that abuses of the AGP should speedily be halted, while the positive benefits of the AGP to consumers should be retained;
Whereas, the positive benefits of the AGP may include, among other things, avoiding fraud and monitoring, testing and development of registrars' provisioning, production and/or merchant gateway systems;
Whereas, the Board believes that the withdrawal of ICANN's waiver of ICANN's non-refundable transaction fee to the deletion of names within the AGP will substantially end the practice of abusing the AGP;
Therefore, the Board RESOLVES (2008.01.04) to encourage ICANN's budgetary process to include fees for all domains added, including domains added during the AGP, and encourages community discussion involved in developing the ICANN budget, subject to both Board approval and registrar approval of this fee.
- The advisory on domain tasting and implementing GNSO's recommendations and proposed budget changes is available at: http://gnso.icann.org/issues/domain-tasting/gnso-domain-tasting-implementation-advisory-16jun08.pdf.
- Add Grace Period Limits Policy implementation announced 17 November 2008, and noted significant decrease in AGP deletions as a result of the budget impact authorized. See http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-17dec08-en.htm
- The resolution does not address funding for the items identified therein.