Appendix 7 Conflict of Interest

The following information outlines how ICANN ensures that its contracted entities and individuals — collectively referred to as “service providers” — are free from conflicts of interest during application evaluation, objection, and dispute resolution for the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round. Service providers include:

• Evaluation panel firms and individual evaluators appointed by the panel firm to conduct an evaluation.

• Dispute resolution service providers and dispute resolution panelists.

• Independent objector firms and independent objectors.

A7.1 Prior to Contracting with Service Providers

To ensure a thorough evaluation and selection process, ICANN follows these steps before entering into contracts with service providers:

1. Service providers for the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round are selected through ICANN’s standard procurement process.

2. Call for Expression of Interest, Requests for Proposals, and Requests for Information are issued to solicit qualified service providers to perform activities including evaluation, and dispute resolution.

3. Certain services may require more than one service provider to perform a particular Program activity. This approach allows ICANN to address any conflict of interest issues.

4. ICANN requires potential service providers to provide background information, including information about their parent companies, a list of their top customers, and references.

5. To be considered, potential service providers must demonstrate to ICANN’s satisfaction that there are no material conflicts, as per the Conflict of Interest Guidelines described in Appendix 8 Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest Guidelines for Service Providers at the time of the bid and that the service providers have controls in place to ensure new or changed resources do not have conflicts.

6. ICANN conducts conflict reviews before contracting with service providers. However, conflicts may still arise once applications are submitted, as a service provider might have a conflict with one or more applicants.

A7.2 Contracted Service Providers

Once a service provider is selected, ICANN follows these steps to ensure compliance and alignment with its Conflict of Interest policies:

1. If selected, the service provider enters into a contract with ICANN.

2. Prior to allocating any applications to service providers, ICANN requires that service providers perform conflict of interest checks for all evaluators in accordance with the Guidebook requirements, and to provide ICANN with the results. ICANN considers these results when allocating applications.

3. Contracted service providers and individual evaluators must comply with and document acknowledgment of their understanding of ICANN's Conflict of Interest policies and guidelines, as outlined in the Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest Guidelines for Service Providers of the Guidebook.¹

4. Service providers are required to complete and submit a “Contractor Conflicts of Interest Disclosure” Form annually. This form helps ICANN identify potential or actual conflicts of interest involving business and family relationships between ICANN, its directors, liaisons, officers, employees, and contractors, as well as with any particular applicant for which the service provider is responsible for evaluating. Additionally, this form is designed to facilitate compliance with disclosure obligations described in ICANN’s Conflicts of Interest Policy.

5. If the service provider is an entity, an authorized representative must complete the Conflicts of Interest Disclosure Form, providing responses to the best of their knowledge in an individual capacity.

6. The completed Conflicts of Interest Disclosure Form is sent to ICANN by the service provider.

7. ICANN reviews the Conflicts of Interest Disclosure Form to make sure it aligns with its existing conflicts of interest policies and guidelines.

8. If there are any material changes during the current year in the information provided in the Conflicts of Interest Disclosure Form, the service provider should promptly notify ICANN.

9. In addition, the service provider on its behalf and behalf of all individual evaluators, must agree to revise and update the Conflicts of Interest Disclosure Form whenever circumstances require such revisions, and, at a minimum, on an annual basis.

10. If conflicts of interest are identified that do not embody ICANN's mission and purpose, ICANN may seek resolution according to the negotiated terms regarding termination in the service provider’s agreement. However, if a conflict is identified for individual panel member(s) and not an entire service provider, and that conflict can be mitigated in some way, such as prohibiting that individual panel member from access to any information provided by ICANN and from participation in the matter for which the conflict has been identified, ICANN may enter into an agreement to ensure such mitigation measures. In such case, ICANN may not necessarily terminate the service provider’s agreement itself.

A7.3 Subcontractors

To manage subcontractors effectively, ICANN implements the following steps to ensure compliance with its conflict of interest policies:

1. ICANN requires that third-party subcontractors of a service provider be disclosed and approved before they can provide services.

2. The contractor agreement includes a standard provision that prohibits engaging other individuals or third-party subcontractors on a project or granting them access to the confidential information provided by ICANN. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis if approved by ICANN.

3. If an exception is approved, ICANN will provide revised language to use for the contractor’s agreement along with a checklist of required documents, such as a non-disclosure agreement and a conflict of interest disclosure form.

4. ICANN will review the completed documents to ensure compliance with existing ICANN’s conflicts of interest policies and guidelines.