Article III, Section 3.1 (d)(iv)(C)

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

The contract language states "ICANN may seek expert advice during the 
preliminary determination period (from entities or persons subject to 
confidentiality agreements) on the competition, Security or Stability 
implications of the Registry Service in order to make its "preliminary 
determination."

Sorry to say, but we cannot trust ICANN to independently arrive at the correct 
conclusion on competition matters without the benefit of expert advice... it 
lacks the expertise; the above sentence should replace the word "may" with the 
word "will".

One only needs to point to the preliminary determination on competition made 
with respect to the recent .jobs proposal to see that ICANN is independently 
incapable of arriving at a correct decision.  While ICANN's compliance 
department was eventually able to properly conclude that "It appears that 
Employ Media and SHRM, through the Direct Employers Association, intend to use 
the .JOBS TLD primarily to compete with other internet job boards," ICANN's own 
preliminary evaluation, by contrast, noted no significant competition issues.  

What we have here is a failure of process within ICANN.  While Stability and 
Security Issues are evaluated by an entire team, competition issues are only 
subject to perusal by a single individual, the ICANN General Counsel. 

This particular process failure may be addressed by requiring ICANN to 
necessarily seek expert advice during the preliminary determination period on 
all registry services proposals tendered.