GAC Advice leads to TLDH withdrawing four fresh TLD applications

Major fresh TLD applicant states it will withdraw four applications following discussions with governments.

Top Level Domain Holdings, a publicly traded pure play applicant for fresh top level domains (London: TLDH), plans to withdraw four of its top level domain applications following receiving government advice.

In a release issued today, the firm writes:

The GAC strongly advised against four gTLDs, none of which TLDH applied for. Another 513 gTLDs were given some kind of advice by the GAC, ranging from serious reservations to desired improvements. The Firm has decided as a consequence of these warnings, and following discussion with relevant governments, to withdraw four of its applications: .FREE, .SALE, .SPA and .ZULU.

All of the domains the firm will withdraw are contested except for .zulu.

The firm also stated it anticipates that ICANN will have signed contracts for “over a hundred” fresh TLDs by the time of ICANN’s July meeting in South Africa. It believes it will take regarding three months following a contract is signed until a TLD launches.