ICANN Clarifies Its Role Regarding Online Pharmacies

Following some recent activities, ICANN has sought to outline their responsibilities when it comes to its role and responsibilities to online pharmacies.

The clarification comes in the form of a posting on the ICANN blog and in the post Maguy Serad, Vice President, Contractual Compliance Services, writes “ICANN has little or no control over the content of websites. In fact, our responsibilities and mission are very limited.”

Changes though occurred when the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) was updated in 2013. “Some registrars are signatories to that RAA, others are signatories to its predecessor, the RAA of 2009. The rights and responsibilities of the registrars differ under the two agreements.”

“When the 2013 RAA was being considered, the international law enforcement community wanted a dozen safeguards written into the agreement. All twelve were addressed, including requirements for registrars to verify and validate contact information of registrants and to maintain a point of contact who is responsible for reviewing reports of illegal activity submitted by law enforcement and regulatory agencies. These measures will assist the public and benefit law enforcement as it looks into reported abuses by online pharmacies.”

“ICANN’s ability to investigate complaints about a particular registrar, which might have registered an online pharmacy site, extends only as far as our rights under the contract with that particular registrar. While most in the ICANN community understand that, too many times the general public often does not.

“Our contractual compliance team occasionally receives complaints about registrars relating to unlicensed online pharmacies, with the expectation that we have the ability to not only investigate, but also immediately take down any given site. This is not the case.

We are very concerned about unlawful activity of any type on the Internet. However, those concerns do not necessarily mean that we are empowered to address those activities. Our only enforcement power lies within the realm of contractual compliance and extends only to enforcement of the specific language in our agreements.

“Many complainants simply do not understand that ICANN is not a governmental or law enforcement agency and has no law enforcement authority. That said, we support law enforcement efforts to fight illegal drug sales and will continue to work within the scope of our authority to assist law enforcement and regulatory agencies, where we are empowered to do so.”

Serad goes on to note that “the simple reality is that ICANN is not a court and is not empowered to resolve disputes when parties disagree over what constitutes illegal activity in multiple countries around the world. We rely on governmental regulatory authorities and courts to police illegal activity. Where law enforcement or a regulatory agency obtains an appropriate court order, ICANN will comply with the court order and require its contracted parties to do the same.”

“Whenever and however possible we support law enforcement efforts. We occasionally work informally, when appropriate, to encourage our contracted registrars to cooperate with law enforcement and regulatory efforts to combat illegal online pharmacies.”

For the pull posting on the ICANN blog, go to:
https://www.icann.org/news/blog/clarifying-icann-s-role-online-pharmacies