The Belgian ccTLD registry DNS Belgium has notified ICANN that it is cutting its budget contributions by two thirds. Previously, the amount of deductions was $75,000 a year, but now the registry will pay only $25,000. Philip Du Bois, General Manager of DNS Belgium, explained the reasons for this move in a letter he sent to ICANN CFO Xavier Calvez. According to Mr. Du Bois, ICANN is increasingly turning into a large corporate structure, suffering from the dilution of its own goals and the diversion of resources to secondary tasks. In addition, the dissatisfaction of the registry is also caused by the fact that ICANN still cannot bring its rules in line with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted by the European Union. " ICANN and its officers don’t feel any reluctancy to “advise” European institutions and national governmental bodies to embrace “standards developed by the multi-stakeholder structures on international level” while at the same time it is obvious that ICANN itself has not yet mastered the implementation of important European legislation," Domain Incite cited Du Bois's letter, reporting this news.
The latter circumstance is very important for Belgium, which is extremely sensitive to the protection of personal data and advocated the confidentiality of Whois information long before the adoption of the GDPR. It should be understood that ccTLD registries' contributions to the ICANN budget are purely voluntary, but there are recommended price targets that depend on the number of names registered in the domain zone. Thus, the registry of the Pitcairn Islands domain pays $500 to the ICANN budget, and the UK ccTLD registry pays $225,000. For the Belgian ccTLD registry, this amount is $75,000, which DNS Belgium paid earlier.
The ICANN seems to have decided to refrain from discussing the claims of the Belgian side. In a response letter, Xavier Calvez stressed that ICANN gratefully accepts any contributions. He also added that the corporation is sympathetic to the fact that these amounts may vary depending on the economic situation. This remark should be recognized as some cunning. ICANN is well aware that the Belgian ccTLD registry has seen a small but steady increase in registration revenue for several years and is therefore not experiencing economic hardship.
