ICANN chair Cherine Chalaby wrote a letter to the leaders of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) member countries which says that ICANN will decide the future of the .AMAZON domain. It has been reported several times that online retailer Amazon wants to use it as a dot-brand domain, which ACTO countries strongly oppose.
Many attempts have been made to overcome these differences over several years. In particular, Amazon offered financial compensation and other benefits to ACTO countries, and the ICANN president served as the mediator during the talks. Unfortunately, all of this failed to bring the parties to consensus. The last deadline to reach a compromise was April 7, which has passed. Domain Incite reports citing BBC World Service that this time ACTO countries wanted Amazon to create a permanent policy committee with seats at the table for governments to veto second-level domains Amazon decides it wants to register in .AMAZON. Amazon declined.
ICANN does not believe there are further opportunities for talks. Amazon has until April 21 to present an action plan to address ACTO’s concerns, and after that ICANN will decide whether to approve the .AMAZON gTLD or not. However, there is no straightforward way out for ICANN management: any approval or rejection will very likely provoke anguish from the losing side.
