[CPWG] IRP Decision per Namecheap Challenge

[Carlton Samuels]

A governance conundrum for sure, as in when does an illegal act by a public
benefit corporation be deemed sanctionable?

I never quite got what Namecheap's bellyaching was intended to achieve
because we know ICANN has committed - in its affirmations to the USG
premised on cutting the oversight apron strings - to a names market that is
free and unfettered. [*Full disclosure: I am and remain neutral on this
policy posture, caveat emptor and all that applied.*]

So consistent with that view, the IRB has determined that price changes
instituted by .biz and .org are shadows, not substantial things, even with
recognition that the bye-laws to which the Board is bound were violated.
The ICANN org analysis at least thinks this is what the IRB says:

".....*Ultimately, however, the IRP panel found that ICANN's approval of
the 2019 Registry Agreements for .INFO and .ORG without price controls
violated the Articles and/or Bylaws in a few ways, including ICANN was not
sufficiently transparent in its decision making, the Board did not, but
should have made the decision about these particular Registry Agreement
renewals, and ICANN did not follow procedures for ensuring promotion of the
global public interest.*

*The panel viewed these violations as procedural rather than substantive in
nature, and recommended, but did not order, that the ICANN Board analyze
and discuss what steps to take to remedy the specific violations and to
improve its overall decision-making process to ensure that similar
violations do not occur in the future. Notably, Namecheap urged the panel
to order ICANN to re-impose price controls in the .BIZ, .INFO, and .ORG
Registry Agreements. The panel did not do so, and stated that such an
"order" is not within an IRP panel's remit and that there is a "clear
distinction" between the panel's "power to 'declare' and its power to
'recommend.*'"
https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/icann-receives-final-declaration-in-the-namecheap-independent-review-process-05-01-2023-en

Carlton
==============================
*Carlton A Samuels*

*Mobile: 876-818-1799Strategy, Process, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround*
=============================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/cpwg/attachments/20230109/63b5e1b0/attachment.html>