ICANN Publishes Registry and Registrar Compliance Program

Dave Zan · Apr 5, 2005

http://www.icann.org/compliance/

ICANN Compliance Program for Registries and Registrars

ICANN's Compliance Program has been published to explain ICANN's approach to enforcement of compliance with its Registry Agreements and Registrar Accreditation Agreements ("the Agreements").

Contraventions of the Agreements can cause serious detriment to consumers and to the Internet community both directly, and indirectly, by damaging the competitive process that is crucial to a dynamic and healthy market. ICANN therefore seeks to achieve deliberate compliance with the Agreements. ICANN aims to prevent contraventions of the Agreements from arising and, where they do occur, to address them so as to encourage compliance by the business concerned and registries and registrars generally. By pursuing possible contraventions, ICANN also seeks to produce clarity and certainty for registrars, registries and consumers about the Agreements and to identify areas for reform to be considered by the ICANN community.

Of particular importance is ICANN's underlying philosophy regarding compliance, which includes active investigation and willingness to pursue breaches publicly. Documented processes, standards and steps for complaint handling and investigation are fundamental for ensuring efficiency and fairness. ICANN will address instances of non-compliance with a series of escalating penalties based on the seriousness of the breach, up to and including loss of accreditation or termination of an agreement. In keeping with its values of openness and transparency, ICANN will post various statistics and reports relating to its compliance work.

ICANN has on several occasions worked with relevant governmental and consumer protection agencies, resulting in actions against businesses acting in deceptive or anticompetitive ways. ICANN in no way intends to take over any part of the role played by these authorities, but does view continuation of this cooperative work as part of its contribution to a healthy competitive environment. This cooperation will include links for those agencies to ICANN compliance information.

In accordance with this philosophy and its mission and core values, ICANN staff undertook in 2004 an examination of all present agreements under which it condcts operations, with the purpose of designing a comprehensive compliance program for the organization. This program encompasses a new staff division dedicated to ensuring a thorough audit of all parties on all areas enumerated in the agreements, as ICANN performs routine compliance checks throughout the year.

In addition, the plan outlined below includes a public input component, so that members of the community can initiate investigation by ICANN staff of alleged instances of noncompliance. In order for this option to be utilized most efficiently by the community, it is important to help promote public understanding and provide direction on appropriate recourses for solving problems. To that end, ICANN will continue to develop comprehensive consumer guides to the public answering frequently asked questions and providing resources for common problems. Some materials and links can be found below in the "Contacting ICANN Regarding Compliance Matters" area.

ICANN will dedicate a number of staff members to be responsible for covering the day-to-day compliance work. It should be noted though, that successful implementation of an effective compliance program will require the time and professional commitment of each member of the entire organization. Accordingly, all staff will go through regular internal compliance training to ensure that they are working with current information and adhering to proper compliance procedures. ICANN will prioritize providing resources in terms of staff and process development of compliance functions. The compliance staffing plan, including position descriptions, is described in the overview section below. Finally, compliance procedures will ensure that records of all activities and communications are kept, and regular reviews of the overall program by management are conducted to provide for continual improvement of compliance program policies and procedures.