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2017 Global Amendment to the Base New gTLD Registry Agreement

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News

31 July 2017 – the 2017 Global Amendment to the base New gTLD Registry Agreement is effective as of 31 July 2017. The current form of the base Registry Agreement has been updated and is published on ICANN's Registry Agreements webpage. Individual execution is not contemplated according to Section 7.7(c) of the Registry Agreement.

View archived news

Relevant Resources

Background

Section 7.7(a) of the base New gTLD Registry Agreement provides a mechanism for ICANN or the Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG) to periodically initiate negotiations and revisions to the Registry Agreement. These negotiations may be initiated by either party not more than once per twelve-month period. The first notice to initiate negotiations could not be submitted by either party prior to 1 July 2014.

On 16 July 2014, the RySG notified ICANN that it wished to negotiate proposed changes to the Registry Agreement. As required by Section 7.7(b) of the Registry Agreement, ICANN engaged in a "Discussion Period" with the Working Group established by the RySG on the form and substance of proposed contract amendments that were submitted by the Working Group and ICANN.

On 31 May 2016, ICANN posted for public comment the proposed changes to the Registry Agreement. After the close of the public comment period on 20 July 2016, ICANN published the Report of Public Comments [PDF, 404 KB] on 17 August 2016. ICANN and the Working Group then reviewed the public comments and, on 22 December 2016, ICANN published a Reissued Report [PDF, 545 KB] to supplement the initial Report of Public Comments with additional analysis as well as an updated Global Amendment [PDF, 424 KB].

The Global Amendment, posted in the relevant resources section, is the result of several months of negotiations between the parties on mutually agreeable text of the proposed amendments.

Section 7.7(c) of the Registry Agreement states that both the ICANN Board and Applicable Registry Operators must approve the Global Amendment in order for it to be deemed an approved amendment pursuant to the terms of the Registry Agreement.

ICANN organization and the Working Group agreed to voting procedures and ICANN organization engaged a third-party voting administrator to hold a vote of Applicable Registry Operators. The voting period concluded on 10 April 2017 with the requisite thresholds achieved by Applicable Registry Operators. Subsequently, the ICANN Board approved the Global Amendment at a meeting held on 18 May 2017.

Following these approvals, ICANN issued the 60-day notice to Applicable Registry Operators indicating the effective date of the Global Amendment as 31 July 2017.

ICANN has published the 2017 Registry Amendment on the Registry Agreements webpage as well as the 2017 Global Amendment to each Applicable Registry Operator's Registry Agreement page on ICANN.org.

Final Vote Results

As of the end of the voting period on 10 April 2017, the Applicable Registry Operators approved the Global Amendment to the base New gTLD Registry Agreement. The data below reflects the final results of the vote.

A total of 875 Applicable Registry Operators voted out of a total possible 1,228, reaching the following thresholds:

  • Fee Threshold: affirmative approvals of Applicable Registry Operators accounted for 76.59% of the total amount of fees paid to ICANN by all Applicable Registry Operators during the previous calendar year, thus achieving the required two-thirds (66.66%) and resulting in approval by this threshold.
  • Majority Threshold: 71.09% of Applicable Registry Operators voted affirmatively, reaching a majority and resulting in approval by this threshold.

The ICANN Board approved the Global Amendment on 18 May 2017. Subsequently, ICANN organization notified the ICANN community and provided applicable notices to registry operators.

Throughout this vote, ICANN organization updated this section approximately once every two weeks with progress of the vote towards the two thresholds required to achieve Applicable Registry Operator Approval pursuant to Section 7.6(j)(ii) of the base New gTLD Registry Agreement. The charts shown below display the final results as 10 April 2017.

  1. Fee Threshold Chart: represents the final results of "the affirmative approval of the Applicable Registry Operators whose payments to ICANN accounted for two-thirds of the total amount of fees paid, pursuant to the Registry Agreement, the immediately previous calendar year."
    Fee Threshold Chart
    As of 10 April 2017
  2. Majority Threshold Chart: represents the final results of "the affirmative approval of a majority of the Applicable Registry Operators at the time such approval is obtained."
    Majority Threshold Chart
    As of 10 April 2017
  3. Percentage toward Approval Thresholds: represents movement over time of the fee and majority thresholds required to approve the Global Amendment. Data points indicate dates at which ICANN gathered vote progress data from the third-party voting software.
    Percentage toward Approval Threshold Chart
    As of 10 April 2017

The CSV file linked below shows a list of Applicable Registry Operators and whether an Applicable Registry Operator voted. The file includes the following data: (1) TLD; (2) Registry Operator Name; and (3) voting status where "X" indicates that a vote has been submitted.

Additional Resources

All capitalized terms and referenced sections used throughout this webpage have the meaning described to them in the base New gTLD Registry Agreement.

News Archive

1 June 2017 – ICANN issued the 60-day notification to Applicable Registry Operators indicating the effective date for the revisions resulting from the approved Global Amendment. The effective date is 31 July 2017.

Once the Global Amendment becomes effective, individual execution is not contemplated according to Section 7.7(c) of the Registry Agreement. On the effective date noted above, ICANN will publish the effected Global Amendment on the Registry Agreements webpage. Additionally, ICANN will post the Global Amendment to each Applicable Registry Operator's Registry Agreement page on ICANN.org.

Please refer to the Relevant Resources section below to review the changes to the Registry Agreement and determine necessary implementation measures. For questions, please message ICANN through the Global Domains Division Portal or email [email protected].

23 May 2017 – The ICANN Board approved the Global Amendment at a meeting held on 18 May 2017. Following the Board's resolution, ICANN will provide the appropriate communications to Applicable Registry Operators on next steps for implementation and will update this webpage accordingly. ICANN will also provide updates to keep the ICANN community informed.

8 May 2017 – Applicable Registry Operators have approved the Global Amendment and the next step is to submit the Global Amendment for ICANN Board approval.

10 April 2017 at 23:59 UTC – Voting Period Closed

9 February 2017 at 23:59 UTC – Voting Period Opened

7 February 2017, 16:00-17:00 UTC – Webinar – Registry Agreement Amendment Voting Procedures

ICANN held a webinar regarding the Global Amendment to the base New gTLD Registry Agreement. During that webinar, members of the RySG's Working Group and ICANN organization led participants through an overview of the amendment process, summarized the changes, and reviewed the voting procedures and next steps.

22 December 2016 – ICANN Published a Reissued Staff Report [PDF, 545 KB] on the Proposed Global Amendment to the Base New gTLD Registry Agreement.

17 June 2016 – Session at ICANN56 Announced – Amending the New gTLD Registry Agreement

ICANN held a session at ICANN56 in Helsinki on 28 June 2016 at 07:30 UTC (10:30 EEST) on the proposed amendment to the base New gTLD Registry Agreement. To learn more, read the blog published 31 May 2016.

14 June 2016 – Webinar – Amending the New gTLD Registry Agreement

31 May 2016 – Proposed Amendment to Base New gTLD Registry Agreement

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