[gnso-rpm-wg] URS / UDRP proposals -- data on registrar/registry compliance costs

[Jonathan Frost]

I agree that Registries and Registrars need to be able to recover the cost
of administering the URS/UDRPs, as part of the filing fee.

The costs that the Registries/Registrars bear actually goes beyond what Reg
has said.  There are situations where we have to go to outside counsel or
even ICANN to resolve ambiguities in complying with the rules.
Additionally, the 24 hour action requirement on locking a domain that has
received a URS complaint actually increases the resources that have to be
dedicated, beyond the actual number of minutes per complaint, because
compliance personal has to allocate/reserve a certain time per day to
perform the tasks, even if no complaint is received that day.

Just like the arbitration administrators charge a cost recovery fee for
administration as part of the filing fee, it's just common since that the
Registries/Registrars would too.

Jonathan Frost


On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 5:57 PM George Kirikos <icann at leap.com> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> In support of an upcoming proposal regarding allowing cost recovery by
> registrars and registries of compliance costs associated with the
> handling of URS and UDRP disputes, I wanted to share the following
> data (which I will then reference in the actual proposal).
>
> (a) I reached out to Reg Levy of Tucows, Direct of Compliance for the
> world's 2nd largest registrar (and also a member of this PDP),
> regarding time spent handling UDRP and/or URS complaints and was told:
>
> "With regard to URS, that applies primarily to registries, so we don't
> have any cost for for those. For UDRPs, I haven't done an analysis of
> how long it would take one of my team members to process a UDRP
> complaint; generally, it simply includes intake, locking the domain,
> and then unlocking or forwarding the domain upon resolution. A normal
> UDRP would likely take around 15 minutes but there are some tough ones
> (I've spent more than an hour on a few with Paul talking through the
> issues and figuring out how we will proceed) so I'd call it an average
> of 30–35 minutes per claim." (she said I could share this response
> with the PDP)
>
> (b) GoDaddy's registration agreement suggest that they'll charge an
> administrative fee (albeit to the registrant) for such compliance
> costs:
>
> https://ca.godaddy.com/legal-agreements
>
> "GoDaddy also reserves the right to charge you reasonable
> “administrative” fees" for (i) tasks GoDaddy may perform outside the
> normal scope of its Services, (ii) additional time and/or costs
> GoDaddy may incur in providing its Services, and/or (iii) your
> noncompliance with this Agreement (as determined by GoDaddy in its
> sole and absolute discretion). Typical administrative or processing
> fee scenarios include, but are not limited to (i) customer service
> issues that require additional personal time or attention; (ii) UDRP
> actions(s) in connection with your domain name(s) and/or disputes that
> require accounting or legal services, whether performed by GoDaddy
> staff or by outside firms retained by GoDaddy; (iii) recouping any and
> all costs and fees, including the cost of Services, incurred by
> GoDaddy as the results of chargebacks or other payment disputes
> brought by you, your bank or Payment Method processor. These
> administrative fees or processing fees will be billed to the Payment
> Method you have on file with GoDaddy."
>
> and it has been $50 in the past:
>
> https://domaingang.com/domain-news/udrp-fee-reversed-godaddy-heres-done/
>
> (c) Some URS and UDRP disputes involve multiple domains, increasing
> the complexity and thus the cost of compliance for
> registrars/registries on a variable per-domain name level, e.g.
>
> http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2009/d2009-1661.html
>
> involved 1,542 domains, all of which need to be put on a legal
> hold/lock, checked to determine that they involve the same registrant,
> etc.
>
> (d) if any other registrars and registries wish to share data publicly
> on typical compliance costs (e.g. time per dispute, etc.), that would
> be wonderful.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> George Kirikos
> 416-588-0269
> http://www.leap.com/
> _______________________________________________
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> gnso-rpm-wg at icann.org
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