18(c) What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs?

Prototypical answer:

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.ticketsAccent Media Limitedcloudnames.comView

The essence of our mission for the .TICKETS domain space is to create a safe, secure and trusted global domain environment for online ticket sales, marketing, and promotions which are free from fraudulent activity.

By helping to reduce fraud – and the associated risks from consumers visiting sham websites, such as phishing and malware attacks, attacks from malicious software and the theft of personal information, such as credit card details – the .TICKETS domain space will save unwitting consumers money and disappointment, and reduce the costs (both financial and reputational) to brand and rights owners (as domain names for websites often contain strings associated with them), entertainment venue and ticket collection outlets (who are faced with consumers arriving to collect non-existent tickets), credit card companies (who can suffer charge-backs where this consumer protection applies) and event organisers who may have charge-back costs assessed against them by their payment providers.

In addition, since ticket fraud websites are widely associated with worldwide organised crime, the social good created by a secure .TICKETS domain space goes far beyond the online ticket-buying public and ticketing industry.

Our operating rules will inherently support all of the above.

i. How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first- serve basis?

Multiple applications for a particular domain name will be resolved on a first-come, first-served basis. This will be subject to applicants meeting the eligibility criteria.

Premium names will be auctioned amongst the eligible registrants.

ii. Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts)

It is our intention to offer registrants contracts for 1, 2 and 5 year periods and we may offer a discount on periods longer than 1 year. We may offer bulk-registration discounts if that expedites the use and consumer awareness of the .TICKETS registry.

Additionally, we have ascertained a number of technical redundancies and potential cost savings that might be available to registrants that have achieved specific tiers of registration or registrants that undertake specific activities and have use cases that would enable us to develop services around the cohort of registrants operating with the high levels of security and transparency benchmarks that will be in place to support our goals and objectives.

iii. Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.

As a high security TLD based on pre-authorisation and registrant eligibility, we will naturally seek consistency within our registrant clients. We therefore welcome and encourage multiple year registrations of 5 years or more, subject to the maximum ICANN registration period that is set at ten years. Registrants of multiple year registrations will be audited in accordance with the sector-specific eligibility criteria throughout the term of their registration, and on an ongoing basis throughout any renewal periods.

As part of the registry agreement that we will agree with ICANN, we will commit to limiting renewal price increases. In practice we anticipate that registration prices will reduce over time as we build economies of scale. However, we are exposed to exchange rate risk, and our financial model is based on a rate of £1 = USD$1.57. Should the exchange rate change materially, we will review prices to take account of currency movements.

Our financial model also includes a substantial proportion of “other” service revenues, which are again priced in US dollars, but in practice might be received in multiple currency denominations depending upon the location of the vending registrar or the registrant. We will commit that the retail price of any annual fees (paid per organisation, not per domain) will increase no faster than the agreed rate of increase of the renewal prices per the Registry agreement. We will reserve the right to adjust these fees further if the exchange rate changes materially.

Registrars will be given sufficient notice of any price changes in accordance with the then current Registry agreement with ICANN and price changes will apply to new registrations and renewals.

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