ICANN Waives Registrar Insurance Requirement, Levels Playing Field for Registrars Globally
A resolution recently approved by the ICANN Board of Directors will promote enhanced gTLD registrar competition in the global domain name marketplace by removing an unnecessary barrier to registrar accreditation. Since 1999, the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) has required that registrars maintain Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policies with policy limits of at least US$ 500,000. Following 18 months of research, analysis and community consultation, the Board determined that this type of insurance may not serve its intended purpose of protecting registrants, and, in fact, may have inhibited the ability of prospective registrars to become accredited in some regions. Accordingly, on 28 September 2015 ICANN's board resolved that ICANN waive this requirement in all RAAs, effective immediately.
CGL insurance policies generally only cover certain incidents that occur on a company's premises. Examples of qualifying events may include a customer that is injured in an accident on the premises or an incident that occurs due to an employee's actions. While this coverage is useful for these types of incidents, it would not cover registrars' potentially wrongful acts, such as failure to renew a domain name.
Another factor that was considered was the availability and cost of CGL insurance globally. While it is common and readily available in some regions, it is more difficult to find—if available at all—and significantly more expensive in many other regions, including parts of South America and Africa.
For example, a community member from Nigeria reported in a recent forum of public comments that under Nigerian law businesses headquartered in that country are required to purchase insurance coverage from Nigerian companies at a substantial premium. Using the US dollar-to-Naira exchange rate at that time, the ICANN-required policy limit was roughly 156.7 times the 2014 Nigerian GDP per capita or the total income of the country divided by the number of inhabitants, giving a rough estimate of the average individual income. By contrast, the CGL policy limit was approximately 9.2 times the USD GDP per capita in the United States (GDP data from the World Bank).
At the Board's direction, staff will begin notifying registrars of the waiver. The Board also requested that the GNSO Council consider whether to undertake policy work on a substitute RAA insurance requirement.
For more information about the impact of this decision on prospective and existing registrars and the broader internet community, see ICANN's RAA Insurance Waiver FAQs.
Comments
secura 06:52 UTC on 27 December 2016
It is a good approach by ICANN to waive registrar insurance requirements, especially helpful for registrars in developping countries. By the way: No registrar is obliged to cancel now the liability insurance. I see one problem: The causes mentioned by ICANN seem not to be known by the registries. Some registries have still registrar insurance requirements. Hans-Peter Oswald
Purvis Grice 15:47 UTC on 06 January 2018
Your registration is hard to follow, I sign up one day give all the information that was required and ask for on your from.
Keerthi prasad 20:10 UTC on 07 May 2018
Thank you. But a clarity in registration process will be great.
Richard Jordan 07:52 UTC on 30 June 2018
I'm just gonna make it quick ur awesome thanks
La huu hung 00:31 UTC on 19 April 2020
Khong hieu
Saifoosaleh 06:04 UTC on 29 May 2020
ขอเดโมหน่อย
Carlos Montalvo 12:50 UTC on 16 June 2020
Buenas tardes me pueden apoyar en obtener un dominio
Vilson da Silva 10:02 UTC on 19 June 2020
Grato por disponibilizar sistema para dados, etapa concluída
Jaroslaw Czepczor 17:10 UTC on 21 July 2020
Thank you for all your help ,is lots to do and am try my best with all aspects I shud do , is not easy but I will manage I hope . ;)