PRESS RELEASE

27 February 2009

The Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy (http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/policy_statement.html) establishes the standards applied by ICANN in granting gTLD registrar accreditation. In addition to setting minimum qualifications, the policy describes "matters potentially leading to ineligibility" for accreditation, including disqualification of a "registrar or registry administrator, or any officer, director, manager, employee, or owner (including beneficial owners) from being an ICANN-accredited registrar or registry administrator" in accordance with procedures established by ICANN.

ICANN has developed a draft, proposed Registrar Disqualification Procedure (available at: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/draft-disqualification-procedure-27feb09-en.pdf [PDF, 124K]) to codify its procedures for registrar disqualification. This proposed procedure is intended to enhance protection of registrants by preventing potential bad actors from causing repeated harm to registrants and other stakeholders in the domain name space.

The draft Registrar Disqualification Procedure is being posting for public comment for 30 days to ensure broad community input. Feedback received will be incorporated prior to implementation of the procedure.

Comments regarding this proposed Registrar Disqualification Procedure may be submitted by email to: [email protected] through 28 March 2009.

Comments may be viewed at: http://forum.icann.org/lists/draft-registrar-dp.