Domain Incite recently learned the details of the talks held between the company Amazon and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), which comprises Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. As is known, the company recently applied for the new .amazon gTLD, but ACTO members raised objections to the bid. There are no formal grounds to call off the new domain for geographical reasons, as none of the countries have a single municipality or administrative region named Amazon. However, the member countries’ consolidated position prevents ICANN from accepting Amazon’s application.
Amazon tried to resolve this issue several times before. Namely, they reassured the member countries that the company would protect the domains key to ACTO’s national interests or cultural legacy. They also promised to support (financially, too) any future ACTO applications for other “amazon”-related domains (such as .amazonas) in the next rounds of ICANN’s New gTLD Program. It turns out Amazon did not stop at this. According to documents published by ACTO, the company also offered to sweeten the deal with $5 million worth of Kindle books, content and cloud services. Moreover, it also proposed setting up an .amazon website “to support the Amazonian people’s cultural heritage” and paying up to $1 million for hosting and supporting it in the course of the next four years.
The ACTO countries have not accepted this offer yet, but their position seems to have softened, as they suggested ICANN act as a facilitator of their talks with Amazon. This September, ICANN’s Board of Directors passed a resolution instructing ICANN’s CEO Goran Marby to participate in the talks. ACTO member states welcomed this decision and invited Marby to the organization’s headquarters in Brazil for the talks.
