New top level domain applicants to get $41 million in refunds – Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News

Applicants will get about $24,000 back for each application.

Companies that applied for new top level domain names this year are getting a portion of the application fee back.

The standard application price was $227,000 per application. Part of that fee was earmarked to cover about $70 million in ICANN’s implementation costs for the program, which were based on 1,000 applications.

With 1,615 applications, ICANN overcollected by roughly $41 million in implementation fees.

Applicants who opted in (and I’m not sure why any wouldn’t) will now get a pro-rata refund of that $41 million.

During a Q&A session last month at ICANN87, the organization said the refund will be about $24,000 per application, or just under 10%.

Because Applicant Support Program applicants will only get a pro-rata refund, the math seems to work out to just over $25,000 per application, but some of the numbers are rounded.

ICANN said it wants to refund this amount as soon as practicable.

The implementation fees were only part of the application costs, which totaled over $350 million. Some applicants will get additional refunds when they withdraw applications.