[NCUC-DISCUSS] 3 last days to propose questions to ICANN CEO

[Mueller, Milton L]

I think some of these questions could be answered by ourselves:

> -----Original Message-----
> On 25 May, ICANN initiated legal action against Epag in Germany.
> 
> --> Can you please tell us why ICANN has escalated a compliance issue directly
> to a Court in the first instance, rather than send a letter or try informally to
> resolve this situation with the contracted party?

Because if EPAG can  decide for itself what Whois data to collect to be compliant with GDPR, then other registrars will be able to do the same, and ICANN will not be able to impose upon registrars its (i.e., the trademark owners') wishes for keeping existing Whois. The legal action also helps to resolve uncertainty about the legality of the temporary specification.

> --> Does ICANN think it is reasonable to take legal action against a contracted
> party, when its temporary specification for gTLD registration data was adopted
> only a week earlier, on 17 May? This did not leave the contracted party with a
> large window to make a good faith effort to implement it.

Having shared the podium with the CEO of EPAG's parent company at RightsCon, I know EPAG is not defying ICANN because they don't have time to follow the temporary specification. It would be very easy for EPAG to collect the data ICANN wants them to collect - the problem is that they (EPAG) thinks collecting it would violate GDPR. In effect, EPAG is stating that they think the temporary spec is not legal. 

> --> The legal filing that was submitted was 25 pages long, along with many
> appendixes. It seems unlikely that this was written the day it was filed. On 21
> May, the FY19 Budget was amended to include $1.2 million for GDPR legal
> expenses. When did ICANN decide it would begin taking legal action against the
> contracted parties in relation to the temporary specification? Is there further
> legal action that ICANN org is planning, and if so, what is it?

The legal filing says that EPAG told ICANN in advance that it would not collect the data, although it does not say how long ago they were told. At any rate, I am not sure what we gain by learning what day ICANN decided it would take legal action.