The eco Names & Numbers Forum stands as one of the world’s largest advocacy groups in the domain industry. With more than 140 member companies – including registries, registrars, back-end providers, consultants and experts from the secondary market – the forum encompasses the entire spectrum of the industry. The eco Names & Numbers Forum works with a broad network of partners. Thomas Rickert and Lars Steffen represented eco members at all ICANN meetings throughout the year.

Names & Numbers Steering Committee

As of 2024, our steering committee involved fourteen members. These include: 

• Elizabeth Bacon, Senior Director, Policy & Privacy, Public Interest Registry
• Jasmine Begg, EMEA Business Development Manager, GoDaddy Registry
• Samantha Demetriou, Senior Director Policy, Verisign
• Oliver Elste, CEO, Smart-NIC
• Regina Fuchsova, Regional Manager Central Europe, EURid
• Dirk Krischenowski, Founder & CEO, dotBERLIN
• Martin Küchenthal, Founder & CEO, LEMARIT
• Reg Levy, Head of Compliance, Tucows
• Neal McPherson, Head of Product Management Domains, IONOS SE 
• Michele Neylon, Co-Founder & CEO, Blacknight
• Katrin Ohlmer, CEO, DOTZON
• Gretchen Olive, Vice President, Policy & Strategic Account Management, CSC
• Richard Wein, CEO, nic.at
• Alan Woods, General Counsel, CleanDNS

ICANN Engagement and Leadership

As a long-standing member of the ICANN community, Thomas Rickert is a member of ICANN’s Registration Data Policy Implementation Review Team (IRT), which has been tasked with describing requirements for Processing Registration Data for each ICANN-accredited Registrar and gTLD Registry Operator that has an agreement with ICANN. In 2024, Rickert also represented the Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers Constituency (ISPCP), both in the GNSO Council and in the small teams on the topics of Board Readiness and the RDRS Standing Committee. Since the ICANN78 meeting in Hamburg, Lars Steffen has also become a member of the ISPCP Executive Committee.

In addition, eco Association collaborated with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN Org) and eco member Internet Provider Berlin (IPB) to host a significant event in Berlin in September 2024. Moderated by Thomas Rickert, this gathered Germany’s Internet community members for a roundtable discussion on “Multistakeholder Internet Governance and the Internet We Want”.

ICANN Meetings 2024

79th ICANN Meeting – San Juan, Puerto Rico

The year’s first ICANN meeting, entitled the Community Forum, took place in early March in Puerto Rico. The community engaged in intensive discussions on policy updates, security concerns and governance issues. Major topics included new gTLD processes, DNS abuse mitigation, Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs), and name collision risks, alongside updates on the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) and geopolitical regulatory developments. eco Association and ICANN jointly organised a follow-on comprehensive readout webinar and a report summarising the outcomes.

80th ICANN Meeting – Kigali, Rwanda

The ICANN80 Policy Forum convened in Rwanda in June. Key discussions covered geopolitical developments, DNS abuse mitigation, name collision risks, the role of Public Interest Commitments (PICs) and Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs), and updates on the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS). There was also the growing need for multi-stakeholder engagement in addressing cybersecurity threats and policy challenges in the evolving digital landscape. A significant announcement at ICANN80 was Kurt Erik Lindqvist’s appointment as CEO and President of ICANN. The results were summarised in a readout webinar and a report organised by eco Association and ICANN.

81st ICANN Meeting – Istanbul, Turkey

The ICANN81 Policy Forum took place in Turkey in November. Key topics included the launch of the Coalition for Digital Inclusion (CODI), AI-driven DNS abuse, DNS filtering, and updates on policy development processes. The meeting also emphasised transparency, the role of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), and preparations for WSIS+20, reinforcing ICANN’s commitment to an inclusive and secure global Internet. A comprehensive readout webinar and a report captured the meeting’s outcomes.

In June 2024, eco Association hosted a NETmundial+10 recap webinar, summarising selected topics from the Global Stakeholder Meeting in São Paulo in April. Speakers from various stakeholder groups of the High-Level Executive Committee (HLEC) provided an overview of the highlights and key take-aways of the meeting from their respective perspective. 

September 2024 saw the release of a new explainer video of the eco Association’s topDNS Initiative, explaining why domain shutdowns are not a sustainable solution against illegal Internet content. As the video reveals, the principle of “Take-Down Instead of Blocking” enables a legal and secure solution.

Following each ICANN meeting, ICANN and eco continue to offer concise summaries via readout webinars, where representatives from various steering and advisory committees report on current topics.

The topDNS Initiative brings together registries, registrars and hosting providers with the shared mission of ensuring stable, reliable and secure operation of the Domain Name System (DNS). Current participants include Verisign, Team Internet, Public Interest Registry (.ORG), IQ Global, IONOS, InterNetX, Leaseweb, CleanDNS, nic.at and Realtime Register. In 2024, three new supporters also joined, including Cloudflare, Switch and VVR (Vereiniging van Registrars). We are very pleased that we have been able to significantly expand the group of supporters.

In March 2024, Thomas Rickert, eco Director Names & Numbers, delivered a well-received presentation at Cloudfest about DNS abuse mitigation and the industry’s response to evolving online threats. Further information can be found at https://international.eco.de/topics/names-numbers/.

At the Nordic Domain Days in May 2024, topDNS was once again present as a partner on-site. Industry representatives from across the domain ecosystem gathered in Stockholm, where Lars Steffen, Head of International, Digital Infrastructures & Resilience at eco Association, moderated the morning session on the main stage on 14 May. Additionally, the initiative featured prominently in the programme with a presentation and a collaborative half-day DNS Abuse Workshop with iQ Global.

At M3AAWG61 in May 2024, topDNS hosted a panel discussion led by Patrick Koetter, Head of the eco Anti-Abuse and Email Competence Group. The panel included representatives from Verisign, GoDaddy, 1&1, Abusix and the Netbeacon Institute, highlighting why industry collaboration throughout the technology stack is key for advancing the fight against online abuse.

Unter this same collaborative theme, topDNS held a feeder workshop in Frankfurt on 5 November, preparing for the Internet Infrastructure Forum (IIF) that took place in February 2025 in collaboration with the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network.

The detailed report is available here. 

Best Practice Webinar Series

In 2024, the topDNS Initiative launched an additional best practice webinar. Members and partners of topDNS got to present strategies and measures for preventing, combatting and controlling various types of online abuse on the concept of: “A partnership to empower domain name registries to disrupt CSAM”. 

The series of best practice webinars will continue throughout 2025.

Further information is available at: https://topdns.eco