In the Beijing Communiqué [PDF, 155 KB], the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advised the ICANN Board that "strings that are linked to regulated or professional sectors should operate in a way that is consistent with applicable laws." The GAC proposed specific safeguards that would apply to a broad category of strings related to "consumer protection, sensitive strings, and regulated markets."
On 23 April 2013, ICANN initiated a public comment period to collect input on the "New gTLD Board Committee Consideration of GAC Safeguard Advice." The input received, as well as the applicant responses to the GAC Communiqués, served as inputs to the NGPC's consideration of GAC Category 1 Safeguard Advice.
On 5 February 2014, the NGPC adopted an implementation framework [PDF, 61 KB] for GAC Category 1 Safeguard Advice.
The implementation framework classifies each Category 1 string as requiring one of three levels of safeguards:
- Regulated Sectors/Open Entry Requirements in Multiple Jurisdictions
- Highly Regulated Sectors/Closed Entry Requirements in Multiple Jurisdictions
- Special Safeguards Required
The adoption of the implementation framework allowed applicants subject to GAC Category 1 Advice to proceed in the New gTLD Program once other eligibility criteria have been met. The implementation framework requires safeguards to be added to Specification 11 of the Registry Agreement as public interest commitments. For these applications, these safeguards are mandatory requirements. To view the specific safeguards and affected strings, review the implementation framework [PDF, 61 KB].