ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) published two letters in July. Reasons for termination are not given here. McDonalds also asked these domain extensions not to transfer to another registry.

After a 30-day waiting period during which interested parties may make their arguments for or against the termination of the contract, ICANN took the final decision on 17 August 2017: the registration agreements for these two domain extensions will be cancelled and the delegation will be removed from the root zone.

Such an approach is the exception. In the run-up to the application procedure for the new domain extensions, companies usually checked very carefully whether it was worth having their own domain extension. Above all the fees for the application, the costs for corresponding consulting services and finally the annual, technical operation represent high investment costs in the mid six-figure range. McDonalds will have considered this now negative decision well.