18(c) What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs?

Prototypical answer:

It is Alcon’s current intention during the initial months or years following the delegation of the .alcon gTLD to operate the gTLD as a so-called single registrant TLD as contemplated by ICANN in Article 4.5 of the Template Registry Operators Owners Agreement. As such, Alcon will maintain complete control over the allocation and distribution of all domain names and the TLD space. At the current time, it is also envisioned that the domain names will be awarded to Alcon and its affiliates as further minimizing any social costs that might be involved. Given the fact that Alcon plans to release the available domain names post-launch in a highly controlled manner to only qualified applicants, this further reduces the likelihood that two or more applicants will qualify for registration. At the current time, Alcon intends to make the .alcon domain name available to qualified registrants at no cost to them. If Alcon does change its plan and decides to charge a fee for the registration of the domain names, such domain names will be allocated in accordance with the Registry Agreement that requires the Registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for a period of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrant, but no greater than ten years, and that the Registry Agreement will require advance written notice of any price increases. Alcon currently does not have any plans to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation, as it has no current plans for pricing.

i. Alcon will organize the registry operation for the .alcon TLD in such a manner that it will minimize the likelihood of having multiple applications for a particular domain name. This can be achieved in one of the following ways:
1. Given the fact that the Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator will reserve, delegate and use a large number of domain names that are directly or indirectly relevant to Applicant’s business in its own name, the chances for qualifying ⁄ eligible applicants ⁄ registrants to register duplicative names will be limited;
2. The Registry Operator will release available domain names in a highly controlled manner, which also reduces the likelihood that two or more applicants qualify for the registration of the same domain name in the .alcon top-level domain;
3. As a method of last resort, and subject to the actual domain name registration policy adopted by the Registry Operator and in force at the time of registration, domain names will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

ii. Alcon intends to make the .alcon top-level domain available to qualifying domain name registrants at no cost. The Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator may, at its discretion charge a fee for the registration of domain names under the .alcon TLD. Such fee and domain name registration may be part of a larger package of services offered by the Applicant or its subsidiaries.

iii. The Applicant ⁄ Registry Operator may at its discretion make contractual commitments to increase or decrease the fees for the registration of domain names under the .alcon TLD.

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