[council] 20 Nov Council call - staff response to Afilias RSEP question

[Liz Gasster <liz.gasster@xxxxxxxxx>]

Kristina and all,

At the last GNSO Council meeting, during the discussion on the issues report on 
registration abuse provisions, Kristina Rosette asked whether Afilias was 
required to use the Registry Services Evaluation Process (RSEP) to implement 
their anti-abuse policy or whether Afilias could have implemented it 
unilaterally. Following is staff's response to that question:

Afilias contacted ICANN about their proposed anti-abuse policy and following a 
review of the RSEP and their Registry Agreement, ICANN staff determined that 
the proposed anti-abuse policy did not require a modification to the 
Registry-Registrar Agreement (RRA) which is part of the Registry Agreement. It 
should be noted, however, that the RSEP is required for all registry services 
as defined in the Registry Agreement.  It is also worth noting that Afilias 
implemented their Abusive Use Policy pursuant to section 3.5.2 of their 
Registry-Registrar Agreement 
<http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/info/appendix-08-08dec06.htm>, which 
allows Afilias to require registrars to comply with: "operational standards, 
policies, procedures, and practices for the Registry TLD established from time 
to time by Afilias in a non-arbitrary manner and applicable to all registrars, 
including affiliates of Afilias, and consistent with ICANN's standards, 
policies, procedures, and practices and Afilias' Registry Agreement with ICANN."

Please let us know if you have further questions.

Thanks, Liz