At this week's 29th International Public Meeting, ICANN discussed the topic of amending the RAA to better protect its customers' domain registries and give ICANN access to registrant information to prevent the possibility of future Registerfly-like cases.
Earlier this year Registerfly breached the agreement after it failed to provide pertinent customer data to ICANN, who requested access to the records after it received a slew of customer complaints. More than 75,000 domain names had expired and customers were unable to get access to renew them.
ICANN stripped Registerfly of its accreditation and all of its domains are now registered with GoDaddy.com.
"In March I said that there must be comprehensive review of our Registrar Accreditation Agreement and the accreditation process," Twomey said. "The results of that review are driving this workshop."
ICANN is considering instating a graduated enforcement tool, creating a series of sanctions based on the gravity of alleged RAA breaches that would eventually lead to the most extreme measure of pulling a registrar's accreditation. This currently is ICANN's only sanction.
"A graduated sanctions scheme based on the nature and seriousness of alleged breaches will give ICANN more tools to effectively enforce the agreements," ICANN wrote in a statement.
The organization also is considering changes that would allow it direct access to customer data rather than relying on registrars to provide it when requested, though possible privacy concerns likely would be an issue.
"We are going to keep this discussion going, get input from the wider community, and then we will make the changes needed to protect registrants and domain names," Twomey said.
