ICANN advised to re-evaluate the application for .amazon

As part of the Independent Review Process (a procedure mandated by ICANN bylaws) initiated by Amazon over ICANN’s decision to reject the company’s application for the .amazon new generic top-level domain (and its equivalents in Chinese and Japanese), an Independent Review Panel recommended that the ICANN Board re-evaluates Amazon’s application. The Panel determined that the ICANN Board acted in a manner inconsistent with ICANN bylaws, and that the Governmental Advisory Committee – GAC (whose objection to .amazon determined the Board to reject the application) ‘failed to allow the applicant to submit any information to the GAC and thus deprived the applicant of the minimal degree of procedural fairness before issuance of its advice’. According to the Panel, the ICANN Board ‘should make an objective and independent judgment regarding whether there are, in fact, well-founded , merits-based public policy reasons for denying Amazon’s applications’.