Whereas, the GNSO Council has discussed the Issues Report on Domain 
Tasting and the Final Outcomes Report of the ad hoc group on Domain Tasting;

Whereas, the GNSO Council resolved on 31 October 2007 to launch a PDP on 
Domain Tasting;

Whereas, the GNSO Council resolved on 31 October 2007 to encourage staff to 
apply ICANN's fee collections to names registered and subsequently 
deregistered during the add-grace period;

Whereas, the Board resolved on 23 January 2008 to encourage ICANN's 
budgetary process to include fees for all domains added, including domains 
added during the AGP;

Whereas, the GNSO Council authorized on 17 January 2008 the formation of a 
small design team to develop a plan for the deliberations on the Domain Tasting 
PDP (the “Design Team”), the principal volunteers to which had been members 
of the Ad Hoc Group on Domain Tasting and were well-informed of both the Final 
Outcomes Report of the Ad Hoc Group on Domain Tasting and the GNSO Initial 
Report on Domain Tasting (collectively with the Issues Report, the “Reports on 
Domain Tasting”); 

Whereas, the GNSO Council has received the Draft Final Report on Domain 
Tasting;

Whereas, PIR, the .org registry operator, has amended its Registry Agreement to 
charge an Excess Deletion Fee; and both NeuStar, the .biz registry operator, and 
Afilias, the .info registry operator, are seeking amendments to their respective 
Registry Agreements to modify the existing AGP;

The GNSO Council recommends to the ICANN Board of Directors that:

1. The Staff continue the budgetary process towards approval with the inclusion 
of fees for all domains added, including domains added during AGP as directed 
in the Board resolution of 23 January 2008;

2. An allowance for a reasonable number of deletes as quantified in 4.a.i below 
be included against which the fees would not apply;

3. Upon approval of the budget including said fees and reasonable allowance, 
the deletes activity within the AGP shall be monitored by the GNSO. Specifically:

   a. ICANN Staff shall analyze and report to the GNSO within three months 
   as to how effectively and to what extent the fees have reduced AGP 
   delete activity;

   b. Whether or not further policy work should be considered by the GNSO 
   as a result of the experiences gained during the monitoring stage.

4. Upon conclusion of the monitoring stage, if Staff reports and the GNSO 
confirms that the fees have not been sufficiently effective in reducing AGP delete 
activity, the Staff will immediately begin implementation of the following 
recommendation as Consensus Policy;

   a. The applicability of the Add Grace Period shall be restricted for any 
   gTLD which has implemented an AGP (“Applicable gTLD Operator”). 
   Specifically, for each Applicable gTLD Operator:

      i. During any given month, an Applicable gTLD Operator may not 
      offer any refund to a registrar for any domain names deleted during 
      the AGP that exceed (i) 10% of that registrar's net new registrations 
      in that month (defined as total new registrations less domains deleted 
      during AGP), or (ii) fifty (50) domain names, whichever is greater.

      ii. A Registrar may seek an exemption from the application of such 
      restriction in a specific month, upon the documented showing of 
      extraordinary circumstances. For any Registrar requesting such an 
      exemption, the Registrar must confirm in writing to the Registry 
      Operator how, at the time the names were deleted, these 
      extraordinary circumstances were not known, reasonably could not 
      have been known, and were outside of the Registrar’s control. 
      Acceptance of any exemption will be at the sole reasonable 
      discretion of the Registry Operator, however "extraordinary 
      circumstances" which reoccur regularly will not be deemed 
      extraordinary.

      iii. In addition to all other reporting requirements to ICANN, each 
      Applicable gTLD Operator shall identify each Registrar that has 
      sought an exemption, along with a brief descriptive identification of 
      the type of extraordinary circumstance and the action (if any) that 
      was taken by the Applicable gTLD Operator.

   b. Implementation and execution of these recommendations shall be 
   monitored by the GNSO. Specifically;

      i. ICANN Staff shall analyze and report to the GNSO at six month 
      intervals for two years after implementation, until such time as the 
      GNSO resolves otherwise, with the goal of determining;

         1. How effectively and to what extent the policies have been 
         implemented and followed by Registries and Registrars, and

         2. Whether or not modifications to these policies should be 
         considered by the GNSO as a result of the experiences 
         gained during the implementation and monitoring stages,

      ii. The purpose of these monitoring and reporting requirements are 
      to allow the GNSO to determine when, if ever, these 
      recommendations and any ensuing policy require additional 
      clarification or attention based on the results of the reports prepared 
      by ICANN Staff.