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

Prototypical answer:

For the .tennis registry, we believe it will be crucial to ensure that registrants and end-users are safeguarded from abusive registrations or malicious behavior. WTT will provide both a Trademark Claims and a Sunrise Service for the safeguarding of trademarked .tennis domain names as part of its registry operations.

WTT will also institute numerous operating rules and procedures in order to eliminate or minimize consumer vulnerabilities or other negative consequences which may be imposed upon consumers, registrants, IP rightsholders and other .tennis TLD registry stakeholders.

If warranted, WTT may take down any .tennis domains verified to be harboring and⁄or supporting online threats to the .tennis registry and the broader internet community of users. This action shuts down all activities associated with the domain name, including all websites. Our philosophy in administering this procedure is that removing threats to the consumer outweighs any potential damage to the registrar⁄registrant relationship. WTT will commit to keeping its registrars updated of any malicious activity within the .tennis TLD through weekly or monthly reporting. We will also leverage our back-end provider’s existing relationships with international law enforcement agencies as necessary and in support of these procedures.

Procedures for Resolving Multiple Requests for Top Level Names

Procedures for resolving requests and limiting unqualified registrations of domain names will be implemented in the Sunrise will ensure adequate protection for all trademarks and intellectual property stakeholders. WTT will also implement safeguards to ensure protection of first level geographic names. Other reserved names for which it is envisioned that multiple applications may be requested shall be sold in conjunction with third-party domain name auction services or brokers.

All policies and procedures as described herein with respect to reserved names have been developed in accordance with the ICANN New gTLD Registry Agreement and specifically Provision 2.6 as it is currently published and available.


Registry Pricing Policies

Wholesale Price Stability
With respect to cost benefits for registrants, WTT intends to maintain its introductory wholesale pricing model for registrars for the first three (3) years of registry operations. By providing a predictable wholesale price, we believe this will simplify efforts among registrars to facilitate and achieve end-customer (registrant) adoption at levels which have been forecasted for the .tennis registry.

Bulk registrations above a reasonable number of .tennis domain names from one registrant will be eligible for such discounting incentives through the coordination of our registrar network. Registrants will 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.


Contractual Commitments
Pursuant to provision 2.10 as contained in the current ICANN New gTLD Registry Agreement, WTT will make several contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation. We will provide ICANN and each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed the registry-registrar agreement for the .tennis TLD advance written notice of any price increase of no less than thirty (30) calendar days. With respect to renewal of domain name registrations, WTT shall provide ICANN and each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed the registry-registrar agreement for the .tennis TLD advance written notice of any price increase, including as a result of the elimination of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying, Qualified Marketing Programs or other programs (which had the effect of reducing the price charged to registrars) of no less than one hundred eighty (180) calendar days.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, with respect to renewal of domain name registrations, WTT will provide at least thirty (30) calendar days notice of any price increase if the resulting price is less than or equal to (A) for the period beginning on the Effective Date and ending twelve (12) months following the Effective Date, the initial price charged for registrations in the .tennis TLD, or (B) for subsequent periods, a price for which WTT provided a notice within the twelve (12) month period preceding the effective date of the proposed price increase.

WTT shall offer registrars the option to obtain domain name registration renewals at the current price (i.e. the price in place prior to any noticed increase) for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. In addition, WTT will maintain uniform pricing for renewals of domain name registrations, for which the price for each domain registration renewal must be identical to the price of all other domain name registration renewals in place at the time of such renewal. Such price must take into account universal application of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs in place at the time of renewal.

WTT will make available to registrars Qualified Marketing Programs in which discounted renewal pricing will be offered for up to one hundred eighty (180) calendar days. All ICANN accredited registrars for the .tennis TLD will be provided the same opportunity to qualify for such discounted Renewal Pricing. These programs will not to exclude any particular class or classes of registrations or increase the renewal price of any particular classes of registrations.

For complete transparency, WTT will provide public query-based DNS lookup service for the TLD at its sole expense.

Similar gTLD applications: (3)