DIDP #33 On ICANN's 2012 gTLD round auction fund
This DIDP was filed to inquire about the state of the funds ICANN received from the last gTLD auctions.
In 2012, after years of deliberation ICANN opened the application round for new top level domains and saw over 1930 applications. Since October 2013, delegation of these extensions commenced with it still going on. However, 7 years since the round was open there has been no consensus on how to utilize the funds obtained from the auctions. ICANN until its last meeting was debating on the legal mechanisms/ entities to be created who will decide on the disbursement of these funds. There is no clear information on how those funds have been maintained over the years or its treatments in terms of whether they have been set aside or invested etc. Thus, our DIDP questions ICANN on the status of these funds and can be found here.
The response to the DIDP received on 24th April, 2019 states that that even though the request asked for information, rather than documentation, our question was answered. Reiterating that the DIDP mechanism was developed to provide documentation rather than information. It stated that on 25 October 2018, Resolution 2018.10.25.23 was passed that compels the President and CEO to allocate $36 million to the Reserve Fund. The gTLD auction proceeds were allocated to separate investment accounts, and the interest accruing from the proceedings was in accordance with the new gTLD Investment Policy.
Author
Akriti Bopanna
Akriti is a Policy Officer at CIS and works on progressing human rights, accountability and transparency in ICANN's various processes. She also focuses on issues of freedom of speech in the digital domain, being a lawyer by training. She does not tweet but can be reached at [email protected]
