Amazon Wins Domain Dispute with S.A. Nations

After seven years of review, ICANN has agreed to give the e-commerce giant complete control of the .AMAZON domain. The quarrel over the domain arose after the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) disputed the web store’s right to ownership of the domain given the existence of the Amazon basin region.

Amazon now hopes to use the new domain as a generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that can replace .com URLs. Examples of usage for the domain include “books.amazon” and “fashion.amazon.”

“We welcome and appreciate ICANN’s decision to continue processing Amazon’s applications for the .AMAZON Top-Level Domain,” says an Amazon spokesperson in a statement. “We recognize and take seriously the concerns of the Amazonia regional governments regarding its

The ACTO, which represents countries in the Amazonia region, worked extensively with the Amazon company over the last three years to come to a mutual decision over the domain. Amazon offered to provide the governments of Brazil and Peru $5 million in kindles and web-hosting services during the negotiations, but the region’s governments stuck to its demands to jointly run the .amazon registry.

While ICANN has agreed to process the Amazon gTLD’s, the nonprofit’s domain process allows for a 30-day period of public comment, which will begin once the e-commerce giant publishes its Public Interest Commitments (PICs).