Please be advised that as of 1 June 2023, Epik Inc. (“Epik” or “Registrar”) is in breach of its 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) dated 1 February 2019 (“RAA”).
This breach results from Epik’s failure to:
1. Pay past due accreditation fees, as required by Section 3.9 of the RAA
Additional Concerns
ICANN Contractual Compliance continues to receive complaints from Registered Name Holders (“RNHs”) asserting that Epik is exhibiting a pattern of non-response or delayed response and action to domain name registration renewal and transfer requests. The Registrar has remained responsive to ICANN’s numerous inquiries and notices in this regard. Further, ICANN Contractual Compliance has confirmed that, to date, the specific issues for the affected domain names included in the complaints received by ICANN Contractual Compliance were subsequently addressed. However, additional complaints with expired domain name registrations continue to be received and ongoing cases exist as of the time of this notice. Furthermore, upon ICANN’s request, the Registrar indicated that several hundred domain names have been impacted by the issues that currently prevent Epik from timely providing certain Registrar Services. To date, Epik has not provided ICANN with a detailed description of the specific measures the Registrar has implemented to fully address those issues and ensure timely provision of Registrar Services, including those related to domain name renewals and transfers, for all generic top-level domains (“gTLD”) domain names sponsored by the Registrar prior to, and without the need of, being contacted by ICANN Contractual Compliance.
To avoid termination of Epik’s RAA, Epik must cure this notice of breach by 22 June 2023, 21 days from the date of this letter, by taking the following actions:
Provide a detailed description of the specific actions, with implementation dates and milestones, the Registrar has taken to ensure the timely and compliant provision of Registrar Services, including, but not limited to, the timely renewal of gTLD domain names sponsored by Epik, as required by Section 2.2.5 of the Expired Registration Recovery Policy.
2. With respect to the several hundred domain names that the Registrar indicated had been impacted by the issues preventing Epik from timely providing certain Registrar Services:
a. Explain how the Registrar applied the actions detailed in item number 1 above to each gTLD domain name.
b. Explain how the Registrar is obtaining confirmation of the resolution of the issues impacting each gTLD domain name as it pertains to Registrar Services.
c. Confirm the issues referenced in item
2.b. above have been resolved for each gTLD domain name.
d. Confirm whether Epik has identified any additional impacted gTLD domain names; and, if so:
i. Indicate how many additional impacted gTLD domain names have been identified;
ii. Confirm that the actions in item number 1 above have also been applied to any additional impacted gTLD domain name; and
iii. Confirm the relevant issues for all additional gTLD domain names have been resolved.
3. Pay all past and currently due accreditation fees, as required by Section 3.9 of the RAA.
4. Upon making full payment of due ICANN accreditation fees, confirm that Epik is in good standing with respect to all its payment obligations which impact the Registrar’s ability to timely provide all Registrar Services required under the RAA and ICANN Consensus Policies.
If by 22 June 2023 Epik fails to take the action and provide the information described in items 1 through 4 above and cure the breach, ICANN shall commence the RAA termination process.
