BRS Media has asked the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to commission an independent review of community top-level domains (TLDs) from the 2012 new gTLD round, questioning whether registries awarded priority on the basis of community representation have delivered the benefits that justified their preferential treatment.

In a November 4 letter to Theresa Swinehart, ICANN’s senior vice president of global domains and strategy, and published by ICANN on November 9, BRS Media founder and CEO George T. Bundy called for an examination of what happened after the domains were delegated. The letter was also copied to ICANN Board Chair Tripti Sinha.

At issue is the long-term effectiveness of Community Priority Evaluation (CPE), a mechanism through which qualifying community applicants can prevail over competing applicants for the same domain extension. BRS Media argues that existing contractual safeguards and reviews of application scoring do not establish whether the successful registries have meaningfully served their intended communities.

The request follows a July 24 response from ICANN acknowledging that it has no mechanism to retire community TLDs solely because they have failed to gain meaningful adoption. ICANN can enforce contractual obligations, including community eligibility and registration restrictions under Specification 12 of registry agreements. Those obligations remain in force when a registry changes operators and cannot be abandoned simply through a transfer.

Bundy contends that contractual compliance and community success are distinct issues. “A registry can comply with its contract and still fail the community it was supposedly created to serve,” he wrote.

The proposed review would examine four areas: adoption within intended communities, continued community representation, the effectiveness of registration restrictions, and whether changes in registry ownership or operation have affected the original community purpose. BRS Media also wants ICANN to consider a framework for reviewing and potentially retiring sponsored, community, and geographic TLDs that demonstrably fail to fulfill their original purpose, with objective standards, due process, and protections for existing registrants.

The company stressed that low registration volumes alone should not justify termination, noting that a small but functioning community registry differs from one that has never gained meaningful adoption.

The dispute has renewed relevance for the 2026 new gTLD round. As of October, seven community applications were competing in the new round, including bids for .agent, .mcp, and .bitcoin, according to tldlog. ICANN has introduced additional procedural safeguards for CPE, including requiring evaluation panels to disclose independent research or expert findings to applicants, who have 30 days to respond before a decision is made.

ICANN maintains that existing procedures help mitigate the risk of applicants gaming the system and has directed BRS Media toward the Registry Stakeholder Group and other appropriate community bodies for further policy discussions. It also notes that an earlier review of the 2012 round found that CPE criteria were applied consistently.

BRS Media, which has challenged the fairness and transparency of CPE since 2014, says that finding leaves a different question unanswered: whether the preferential treatment granted to successful community applicants has ultimately produced the intended public-interest benefits.

The company is seeking a direct response from ICANN on whether an independent post-delegation review has ever been conducted, what evidence demonstrates the policy’s effectiveness, and whether ICANN will support a review of the 2012 round’s outcomes.