Hi Gavin, thanks for clarifying. Personally I find that answer very unsatisfactory, because the impact on the applicant will be very severe, and there is no clarity at this point as to what criteria the evaluator will consider and what guidelines they will have in applying those criteria.

	Mike Rodenbaugh
		Rodenbaugh Law LLC
	email:	mike@rodenbaugh.com
	phone:	+1 (415) 738-8087

On Tue, Jan 28, 2025 at 9:12 AM Gavin Brown <gavin.brown@icann.org> wrote:

Hi Mike, apologies for the delay in responding.

> On 17 Jan 2025, at 17:01, Mike Rodenbaugh <mike@rodenbaugh.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks Gavin, this is much appreciated. However, my question -- "How will any decision be challenged?" was referring to the Initial Assessment. If the evaluator finds a high risk, how can that decision be challenged?

There is no challenge mechanism for individual strings, but the external evaluator will produce a report outlining its methodology and findings, which will undergo Public Comment.

Gavin.

--
Gavin Brown
Principal Engineer, Global Domains & Strategy
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

https://www.icann.org