The Independent Review Process (IRP) on ICANN’s decision to reject the application for the new generic top-level domain .GCC has completed. The application was filed by a Bahrain-based company called GCCIX in 2012, as part of the first phase of the new generic top-level domain program. The domain was expected to stand for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): an international organization founded in 1981.
However, just one year later the bid was rejected on the advice of the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee. Its representatives ruled that GCCIX was not associated with the Gulf Cooperation Council and could not represent its interests.
Perhaps, this was a bit presumptuous on the part of the domain applicant. According to Domain Incite, the IRP found out that GCCIX has not legally existed in Bahrain since 2018, when it lost its corporate registration. A more compelling reason for dismissing the complaint is hard to imagine. The IRP panelist noted in his statement that the company’s status as “deleted by law” precludes it from engaging in commercial activity, sign contracts with ICANN, or manage a gTLD. The panelist added that the company had not revived its capacity despite having ample time to do so.
There is only one question left: who will pay for the IRP’s legal costs? They can be quite high, given that the process has dragged on for several years. ICANN will, of course, insist that this burden fall on GCCIX. But can a non-existing company be charged?
