ICANN has approved a new contract for it’s registrars.
One addition that caught my eye was the curious wording regarding requiring domain registries to use ICANN accredited registrars. Up to now it’s been a requirement that anyone running a top level domain has to offer that domain only through ICANN registrars. They’ve now clarified this as follows
ICANN has ordinarily required gTLD registries under contract with ICANN to use ICANN-accredited registrars, and ICANN will during the course of this agreement abide by any ICANN adopted specifications or policies requiring the use of ICANN-accredited registrars by gTLD registries.I find the wording rather tortous. It’s NOT saying they WILL require registries to use ICANN registrars. It’s leaving it open to future amendments and policies.