Board wants .web participants to make their argument…again.
ICANN’s Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee (BAMC) is set to decide the fate of .web. But first, it wants everyone involved to rehash what has happened.
The quick backstory: a company called Nu Dot Co won the auction to run the .web top level domain for $135 million. Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) struck a deal with Nu Dot Co ahead of the auction in which it would bankroll the auction, and then Nu Dot Co would assign the name to Verisign. Afilias (now Altanovo Domains) was the runner-up bidder and complained about the deal. It ultimately filed for Independent Review. The review panel kicked the issue back to ICANN by informing it that it needs to determine whether Nu Dot Co’s deal with Verisign violated the new TLD rules.
That’s where the issue sits today: ICANN needs to determine if the deal was within the rules or not. The board passed a resolution on the matter at a January meeting and is collecting data to make a determination.
Now, the BAMC wants Nu Dot Co/Verisign and Altanovo to make their respective cases again. It says (pdf) it’s going to throw out everything from the Independent Review and other correspondence about the issue and rely solely on what the parties submit.
It’s asking each party to submit up to 75 pages on the topic. They will also be able to make a reply submission of up to 30 pages.
This might sound like the BAMC is running its own Independent Review process, and I bet that’s frustrating for all of the parties involved (except for the lawyers). I’m sure they expected the Board to make a decision based on the significant documentation already used in the IRP.
It also means we’re a ways off from a decision. The submissions are due July 15 and reply submissions are due August 15. So maybe we’ll have an answer this fall.
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Author: Andrew Allemann