ICANN GNSO recommends new Anti-Domain Tasting Solution
Posted by David Goldstein , Thursday, 20 March 2008

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In a proposal to stop domain tasting, ICANN’s GNSO Council has recommended to the ICANN Board restrictions to the Add Grace period that would mean, if accepted, during any given month a gTLD operator “may not offer any refund to a registrar for any domain names deleted during the AGP that exceed (i) 10% of that registrar’s net new registrations in that month (defined as total new registrations less domains deleted during AGP), or (ii) fifty (50) domain names, whichever is greater.” ”Exemptions may be given for extraordinary circumstances, but these applications for an exemption must be applied for and documentary evidence presented.

Public comment is being sought, with comments closing on March 28.

These proposals follow controversy over domain tasting in recent months, with registrants taking advantage of the AGP being able to keep a domain name for up to five days, testing it to see if it gets any traffic, and if not, returning it and not paying a cent to the registrar. A report from ICANN found the process ties up millions of domain names at any one time.

ICANN has also made its own recommendation, recommending they keep 20 cents of each registration fee, whether it is kept beyond the AGP period or not. Many believe this would stop most domain tasting immediately.

The motion from the GNSO is available from gnso.icann.org/issues/domain-tasting/dnt-motion-6mar08.shtml.

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