A governance conundrum for sure, as in when does an illegal act by a public benefit corporation be deemed sanctionable? I never quite got what Namecheap's bellyaching was intended to achieve because we know ICANN has committed - in its affirmations to the USG premised on cutting the oversight apron strings - to a names market that is free and unfettered. [*Full disclosure: I am and remain neutral on this policy posture, caveat emptor and all that applied.*] So consistent with that view, the IRB has determined that price changes instituted by .biz and .org are shadows, not substantial things, even with recognition that the bye-laws to which the Board is bound were violated. The ICANN org analysis at least thinks this is what the IRB says: ".....*Ultimately, however, the IRP panel found that ICANN's approval of the 2019 Registry Agreements for .INFO and .ORG without price controls violated the Articles and/or Bylaws in a few ways, including ICANN was not sufficiently transparent in its decision making, the Board did not, but should have made the decision about these particular Registry Agreement renewals, and ICANN did not follow procedures for ensuring promotion of the global public interest.* *The panel viewed these violations as procedural rather than substantive in nature, and recommended, but did not order, that the ICANN Board analyze and discuss what steps to take to remedy the specific violations and to improve its overall decision-making process to ensure that similar violations do not occur in the future. Notably, Namecheap urged the panel to order ICANN to re-impose price controls in the .BIZ, .INFO, and .ORG Registry Agreements. The panel did not do so, and stated that such an "order" is not within an IRP panel's remit and that there is a "clear distinction" between the panel's "power to 'declare' and its power to 'recommend.*'" https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/icann-receives-final-declarat... Carlton ============================== *Carlton A Samuels* *Mobile: 876-818-1799Strategy, Process, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* =============================