Impact of ERRP Sections related to resellers
The intent of the PEDNR Recommendations 5 and 6 were that all registrant and prospective registrants would have access to specific information, including those who choose to deal through resellers. Once the issue arose of whether the ERRP paragraphs 4.1.2 and 4.2.3 were needed to ensure that resellers carried out the intent of the policy, or were merely a reminder to registrars, I recognized that it was important to understand how ICANN Contractual Compliance viewed the situation. The following e-mail excerpts document the exchange. Alan Greenberg: A comment has now been made (http://forum.icann.org/lists/draft-errp-policy/msg00001.html) speaking against the language in the draft ERRP Policy paragraphs 4.1.2 and 4.2.3 (http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/consensus-policies/errp/draft-policy-11oct12-en.pdf).As a result, the ALAC now needs to decide whether to reply to this, and if so, what we need to say.In order to understand the issue, I would like to know whether ICANN Contractual Compliance believes that the inclusion of these sections alters their ability to enforce the intent of the ERRP.Specifically, it has been stated repeatedly that all obligations of a Registrar are unchanged if they decide to sub-contract marketing to a reseller. In this case, I take this to mean that the obligation to have certain information on the Registrar's web site also includes the reseller's website if that is the Registrant point-of-contact.That would imply that what is explicit in 4.1.2 and 4.2.3 is applicable whether these statement are there or not, and their presence simply serves to remind Registrars of their obligations.Can you please confirm if that is a correct interpretation, or if not, how you view it. ICANN Contractual Compliance: ICANN does not have the same interpretation.The reseller obligations as stated in section 3.12.2 of the 2009 RAA focus on the registration agreement where, if a registrar has an agreement with its resellers, the agreement must require the reseller to include all registration agreement provisions and notices required by the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement and any ICANN Consensus Policies (such as the information identified in 4.1.1 and 4.2.2 of the proposed ERRP). The reseller obligations within the 2009 RAA do not include obligations on registrars to require the posting of information such as that within the proposed ERRP Sections 4.1.2 and 4.2.3 on reseller websites.Under the contracts we have in place today, the reseller website posting obligations in the proposed ERRP section 4.1.2 and 4.2.3 would only be enforced if the language is included within the ERRP. |