Dear All, ICANN announced on 15 May 2018 it has entered into an agreement with DENIC eG [denic.de]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.denic.de_en_&d=DwMF...> as an ICANN-designated agent to support Registrar Data Escrow [icann.org]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.icann.org_resources...> (RDE) services on the ICANN organization's behalf. DENIC eG is a not-for-profit cooperative headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and is the operator of the ccTLD .DE. ICANN org selected DENIC through a competitive Request for Proposal [icann.org]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.icann.org_news_anno...> initiated in August 2017, following requests from the registrar community to expand the RDE program, in part to meet regional challenges such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. Background The Registrar Data Escrow program is intended to protect registrants in the event of registrar failure or termination of a Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). Ensuring the successful transfer of a domain name sponsorship aligns with the ICANN org's objective to support a healthy, stable, and resilient unique identifier ecosystem and is consistent with its Mission and Bylaws (Section 1.1) that states, "ICANN coordinates the allocation and assignment of names in the root zone of the Domain Name System (DNS) and coordinates the development and implementation of policies concerning the registration of second-level domain names in generic top-level domains (gTLDs)." The 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement [icann.org]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.icann.org_resources...> requires registrars to deposit a copy of gTLD registration data with either the ICANN org or with an ICANN-approved RDE agent at its own expense. Since 2007, Iron Mountain has acted as the sole ICANN-designated RDE agent, which has accepted and processed the registrar escrow deposits on behalf of ICANN org. DENIC eG is the second ICANN-designated RDE agent available to registrars. Registrars may also utilize Third Party Providers approved by both ICANN and the registrar; for more information on the Registrar Data Escrow Program and other Third Party Providers see:https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/registrar-data-escrow-2015-12-01-en [icann.org]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.icann.org_resources...>. Best regards, Joke Braeken ccNSO Policy Advisor joke.braeken@icann.org<mailto:joke.braeken@icann.org> Follow @ccNSO on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccNSO Follow the ccNSO on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ccnso/ http://ccnso.icann.org