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Community Discussion: Resolution of Contention Sets

Community Discussion: Resolution of Contention Sets

Owned by Elisa Busetto
Last updated: Mar 02, 2025 by Aleksey KhapchenkoVersion comment

Context

With the ICANN Board’s acceptance of Advice item 2a(ii) of the Governmental Advisory Committee’s (GAC) ICANN80 Kigali Communiqué, the Board directed ICANN org to conduct a community-wide discussion on the resolution of contention sets in the next round of new gTLDs. 

The goal of this discussion was to consider which mechanisms should be established for the resolution of contention sets in the next round of new gTLDs. The mechanism should be consistent with existing policy, operationally viable, agreeable to the community, and not have an impact on the current timeline. To ensure the concerns expressed in the ICANN80 Kigali Communiqué and related GAC and ALAC Advice, the discussion was structured to focus on two issues related to the resolution of contention sets:

  1. Alternatives to private auctions for the voluntary private resolution of contention sets by applicants, and
  2. Alternatives to the ICANN auction of last resort as the mechanism to resolve contention sets in the absence of any private resolution.

The Board plans to review the outcome of the community-wide discussion during its workshop 6–8 September 2024. It will then provide the ICANN organization (org) with any necessary direction on the implementation of the resolution of contention sets.

Virtual meetings were held on 13 and 14 August 2024 at 13:00–15:00 UTC via Zoom. 

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