There is an interesting discussion currently on the IETF list about the consequences of the approval of the new gTLD process by ICANN. One possible issue may be with vanity gTLDs like apple, ebay etc. In this context, an email address may just be user@tld This may be confusing to email clients and MTAs which try to be "smart". Currently , the current standard is defined in RFC 2821 as such: 2.3.5 Domain A domain (or domain name) consists of one or more dot-separated components. [...] The domain name, as described in this document and in [22], is the entire, fully-qualified name (often referred to as an "FQDN"). A domain name that is not in FQDN form is no more than a local alias. Local aliases MUST NOT appear in any SMTP transaction. Hence, if either the mail client or the MTA expect to see a dot in the domain name and there is none, its behaviour may be unpredictable. The new gTLD context is addressed in the draft RFC2821bis, which states: 2.3.5. Domain Names A domain name (or often just a "domain") consists of one or more components, separated by dots *if more than one appears*. (emphasis added) Unfortunately, the current implementations are based on the original RFC2821, not the revised draft. There may be a lot of software out there that would treat user@tld as a local e-mail address (ie not FQDN). I am not aware of any study by SSAC on that matter (pointers appreciated). Where I think it matters for the user community is that we actually expect our e-mails to complaints@ebay or support@apple to be delivered. I see here an opportunity for the ALAC to ask ICANN for a report on this. Patrick