.CAT Cross-Ownership Removal Request

Fundació puntCAT requests the removal of the cross-ownership restrictions reflected on the 23 September 2005 contract signed between ICANN and Fundació puntCAT. (http://www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/registries/cat).

This request is submitted according to the "Process for Handling Requests for Removal of Cross-Ownership Restrictions on Operators of Existing gTLDs" adopeted by the Board on 18 October 2012. See: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registries/removal-cross-ownership.

According to the approved process, in order to lift cross-ownership restrictions, existing gTLD registry operators could either request an amendment to their existing Registry Agreement to remove the cross-ownership restrictions or request to transition to the new form of Registry Agreement for new gTLDs. Any proposed material amendments to gTLD registry agreements would be subject to public comment prior to ICANN approval.

The proposed Fundació puntCAT amendment to can be found here [PDF, 178 KB]. The redlined agreement can be downloaded here [PDF, 66 KB].

ICANN conducted a competition review in accordance to the process and has determined that the request does not raise significant competition issues. Furthermore, Fundació puntCAT argues that the removal of the cross ownership restrictions would allow its entity to be on a level playing field with the new gTLD Registry Operators.

This is the first cross-ownership removal request submitted under the Board-approved process.

ICANN seeks public comment on the Fundació puntCAT's request to amend its 23 September 2005 agreement to remove the current cross-ownership restriction. This would allow Fundació puntCAT to own or control a registrar that sells .cat domains. Per current agreement, .cat domain names are sold only through Fundació puntCAT accredited registrars.

ICANN conducted a competition review in accordance to the process and has determined that the request does not raise significant competition issues. Furthermore, Fundació puntCAT argues that the removal of the cross ownership restrictions would allow its entity to be on a level playing field with the new gTLD Registry Operators.

On 18 October 2012, ICANN Board approved a process, by which existing gTLD registries could request relief from cross-ownership restrictions on registrars to sell domain names in new gTLDs (see http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registries/removal-cross-ownership. This Board action was based on extensive independent analysis and community discussion.

The gTLD registry agreements that are currently in place, including .CAT, have cross-ownership restrictions, which means that the existing gTLD registries are not allow to own or control a registrar that sells domains in their own existing registries. The current .CAT agreement with all appendices is available here: http://www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/registries/cat

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