European Commission reaction to ICANN/NGPC decision on wine domain names
7 Apr 2014 10:44 AM
The European Commission
welcomes the decision by ICANN's new generic top-level domain (gTLD)
program Committee (“NGPC”) to put on hold the applications for
.wine and .vin and its encouragement to applicants to
negotiate.
The latest NGPC decision follows
the strong advice on this matter in the Governmental Advisory Committee's
Communiqué from the ICANN Singapore meeting on 27 March, which was drawn
up at the instigation of the European Commission and Member
States.
The Commission believes that
this postponement is the right one, as Geographical Indications for wine must
be protected from domain name claims that put at risk the viability and
integrity of this important sector.
We note that the postponement is
only for two months, so it is essential that applicants negotiate in good faith
towards an agreeable solution and in full compliance with the
recommendations set forth in the legal expert advice sought by the
NGPC, in particular on the need for the managers of wine-related
Top-Level Domains to put in place precautionary measures for wine Geographic
Indications.
The European Commission will
continue to monitor this situation closely to ensure that the matter is
resolved satisfactorily. In that regard we also welcome the NGPC recommendation
to the ICANN Board to “consider the larger implications of legally
complex and politically sensitive issues such as those raised by GAC members,
including whether ICANN is the proper venue in which to resolve these issues,
or whether there are venues or forums better suited to address concerns such as
those raised by GAC members in relation to the .WINE and .VIN
applications”.
This reflects ICANN’s
obligation to ensure that the global public interest is safeguarded in the
implementation of the new gTLD Program and to promote viable solutions that
balance the rights of different stakeholders. The new gTLDs
“.wine” and “.vin” cannot be opened until the rights
and interests of wine producers and consumers worldwide are duly
protected. If ICANN wants to demonstrate that the multi-stakeholder
approach to Internet Governance can work for all, its decisions have to protect
the common good and not simply favour purely commercial decisions or the
highest bidders.
Background
The Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) decided last year to open up a range of
commercial domain names (like .com or .eu) in order to expand the capacity of
the internet. The process effectively allows a first come first served approach
to designation of domain names. Unfortunately this has sometimes led to
unfortunate circumstances for economically and culturally sensitive domain
names.
In the case of .wine and .vin
there is a real fear that web users could be misled by sites which bear the
name of a well-known wine geographical indication (GI), but which in fact have
no legitimate relationship with that product.
Since the beginning of the
internal market for goods in the EU, the Commission has cooperated with Members
States to ensure that products originating in the territory of a particular
country, region or locality where their quality, reputation or other
characteristic are linked to this geographical origin are
protected.
The Commission wants to make
sure that the rules that apply offline are properly respected in the digital
world.