GTLD administrators will provide registration services directly

Following a meeting at a conference in Toronto, ICANN decided to remove all restrictions on joint ownership (cross-ownership) and vertical integration of common domain area administrators (gTLD registries) and registrars. This means that registries will soon be able to provide second-level domain registration services directly, without the mediation of independent registrar companies.

That is, VeriSign, Neustar and Afilias will receive the right to open a subsidiary, and through it provide the services of the registration of second-level domains in the .COM, .BIZ and .INFO zones, respectively.

At the same time, the administrators of the domain zones will have to conclude a new contract with ICANN to remove the existing restrictions on vertical integration, and their subsidiaries will have to obtain accreditation of the registrar in the same manner as the independent registrars. Also, registries will not have the right to provide their branches with more favorable terms of the contract than the terms of the contract with other registrars.
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According to ICANN, at the moment it makes no sense to link registries with restrictions on vertical integration, especially in the light of the fact that next year there will be dozens of new gTLDs, the owners of which will also be able to provide registration services directly.

Representatives of the US Department of Commerce and the European Commission also spoke in support of ICANN reform.