closed Proposed Next Round Base gTLD Registry Agreement - Public Comment 2 of 2

Outcome

In total, 18 Public Comments were submitted by stakeholders from across the community on the second of two Public Comment proceedings on the proposed 2026 Round Base gTLD Registry Agreement (2026 RA). One of the 18 comments from an individual was supplemented with proposed redlines submitted via Global Support. The Brand Registry Group also sent a supplemental document to their comment directly to staff. Both supplemental documents are appended to this report.

Commenters were requested to consider the incremental changes as compared to the draft 2026 RA provided in the first Public Comment. The changes included (1) updates resulting from the feedback received in the first Public Comment proceeding, as applicable and appropriate; (2) changes to previously proposed new language that was bracketed because it was under further discussion with the SubPro IRT for policy-related issues or with members of the RySG on operational issues, and (3) further changes to clarify language.

All Public Comments received were reviewed and considered by ICANN org. 

What We Received Input On

As part of the New gTLD Program: Next Round, ICANN is preparing the Next Round Base gTLD Registry Agreement (Next Round RA), outlining the rights and obligations of new gTLD registry operators. Once the ICANN Board approves the final terms of the Next Round RA, it will serve as the contractual document between successful applicants in the New gTLD Program: Next Round and ICANN. Note this draft is not final and is subject to ICANN Board consideration and approval. ICANN is opening the second Public Comment proceeding on the Next Round RA to seek input from the community, including potential Next Round applicants.

Consistent with the outputs of the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process (Final Report), the Next Round RA is based on the revised Base gTLD RA (approved by the ICANN Board on 21 January 2024), incorporates changes from Board-approved policy recommendations, and includes other operational updates based on ICANN’s experience since launching the 2012 round of the New gTLD Program.

This second Public Comment proceeding is intended to present the incremental changes as compared to the first Public Comment for additional feedback. The changes include (1) updates resulting from the feedback received in the first Public Comment proceeding, as applicable and appropriate; (2) changes to previously proposed new language that was bracketed because it was under further discussion with the SubPro IRT for policy-related issues or members of the RySG on operational issues, and (3) further clean-up changes to clarify language.

Updates to previously proposed new language that were bracketed include:

• Section 2.13 (Emergency Transition): Removes the previously proposed new language that would have allowed for transition of a TLD to an Emergency Back End Registry Operator (EBERO) provider before the TLD fails any of the Critical Functions under certain conditions.
• Section 2.19 (Incident Reporting): Removes the previously proposed new section that was under discussion to find the appropriate implementation path for SAC074. Following a consultation with the ICANN Board, ICANN intends to implement through a Global Amendment so that both current and new registry operators would have a consistent obligation for Incident Reporting.
• Section 4.3(f) (Termination by ICANN); Specification 11, Section 3(e) (Public Interest Commitments): Revises the previously proposed new language in Specification 11, Section 3(e) to incorporate the wording and intent of Recommendation 36.4 of the Final Report.
• Section 4.3(h) (Termination by ICANN): Revises the previously proposed new language to reflect the conditions a registry operator must fulfill before it can initiate mediation to dispute a termination for nonpayment prior to the termination’s effectiveness.
• Specification 7, Section 1 (Rights Protection Mechanisms): Revises the previously proposed new language to incorporate the wording and intent of Sunrise Final Recommendation 1 in Phase 1 Final Report on the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs Policy Development Process.

Section 2.13 of Specification 14 remains bracketed pending Board consideration of Recommendations 7.4 and 7.5 from Phase 1 Final Report on the Internationalized Domain Names Expedited Policy Development Process (IDN EPDP Phase 1). A separate Public Comment proceeding on Specification 14 may be posted following the Board decision, as appropriate.

As with the first Public Comment proceeding, we are providing a Guided Submission form to gather community input. The form focuses on the proposed incremental changes from the version of the Next Round RA published in first Public Comment and seeks input on whether the revisions to previously proposed new language align with the intent of the policy recommendations noted above.

Background

On 18 February 2021, the GNSO approved the Final Report and transmitted it to the ICANN Board for consideration as required by the ICANN Bylaws. The Final Report presents final recommendations, implementation guidance, and other outputs relating to the next round of new gTLDs.

In the 16 March 2023 Board Resolution, the ICANN Board directed ICANN to begin the implementation of a subset of outputs from the Final Report. Subsequently, an Implementation Review Team was formed and has been assisting ICANN with implementation of the outputs since its first meeting on 16 May 2023. The Board has since taken additional action on further subsets of outputs from the Final Report, including on 10 September 2023, 26 October 2023, 8 June 2024, and 14 November 2024.

Consistent with the outputs of the Final Report (Topic 36), the proposed Next Round RA maintains the structure of a base gTLD Registry Agreement with specifications detailing technical and operational requirements. In addition, the proposed agreement:

• Includes operational criteria to ensure compliance with ICANN policies,
• Has an initial term of a commercially reasonable length (10 years), and
• Includes a renewal expectancy.

ICANN used the revised Base gTLD RA that was approved by the ICANN Board on 21 January 2024 as the starting point, which retains all global amendments to date, including the latest DNS Abuse Global Amendment and the Global Amendment to add Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP). ICANN worked with the Subsequent Procedures Implementation Review Team (SubPro IRT) specifically on the policy-related issues for the Next Round RA since sharing the first preliminary working draft of the Next Round RA with the SubPro IRT on 1 November 2024. ICANN also took the opportunity to integrate other policy-related obligations (i.e., Registration Data Policy, IDN EPDP Phase 1, etc.) to ensure this is the most up-to-date RA once available. 

In addition, the Next Round RA includes operational updates intended to allow for changes to current processes and to create efficiencies within ICANN and for Registry Operators. Members of the Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG) reviewed and provided feedback to ICANN on the proposed operational updates prior to first Public Comment, which was taken into account.

ICANN continued discussions with the SubPro IRT and members of the RySG between the first and second Public Comment on the bracketed areas noted above.

While ICANN discussed this version of the Next Round RA with various community members, including as noted with the SubPro IRT and some of the members of the RySG, these community members do not represent or speak for new gTLD applicants generally, or any group of applicants. ICANN encourages feedback from all parts of the ICANN community, including potential new gTLD applicants in the next round.

Supporting Information