1. All communications must be in English.
2. All communications between the Panel (and any individual Panellists) and the applicant will be channelled through the Secretariat. There shall be no direct communication between the applicant and any Panellist, unless the Panel decides to hold an in-person meeting under section B18.
3. All formal communications from an applicant to the Secretariat shall be made in electronic form, by email, or provided on CD-Rom format by pre-paid post. In the case of applications, the applicant must also provide 7 copies in hard copy form by pre-paid post.
Electronic communications shall be provided either:
(a) in plain text; or
(b) both:
(i) in HTML format, without proprietary extensions, and without external links, in a manner that can be simply published on the Secretariat's web site; and
(ii) in Adobe .PDF format. If applicants feel additional electronic formats (for instance spreadsheet formats) would assist the Panel in their evaluation, they are encouraged to provide them except that the Secretariat may from time to time specify alternative formats.
The Secretariat reserves the right to reject communications supplied in any other manner.
4. Applications should be expressed in clear language and should be as concise as possible. Panellists will not be obliged to consider any materials which they in their sole discretion believe to be irrelevant.
5. Each application shall contain an index, identifying each relevant section of the SLD Policy and the SLD Procedure and stating the relevant paragraph(s) of the application which deals with that section. The index should be in the format set out in Schedule 1, or as otherwise specified by the Secretariat.
6. During the course of an application, if the applicant changes its address details, it must promptly notify the Secretariat.
7. Except as otherwise provided in the SLD Policy or SLD Procedure or as otherwise decided by the Secretariat, all communications provided for under the SLD Procedure shall be deemed to have been received:
(a) if sent by e-mail or fax, on the date transmitted;
(b) if sent by first class post, on the second working day after posting;
(c) where communications are received by more than one method, at the earliest date received;
and, unless otherwise provided in the SLD Policy or SLD Procedure, the time periods provided for under the SLD Procedure shall be calculated accordingly.
8. Applications, relevant correspondence and any decisions of the Panel will be published on the Secretariat's website and may also be published on Nominet's website. The Secretariat may also in its discretion not publish correspondence between the Secretariat, the Panel and applicants and (where appropriate) other parties. Applicants are therefore encouraged not to submit materials which they wish to keep in commercial confidence. Where more than one application is ongoing, the Secretariat will, where practicable, publish materials relating to all applications at the same time, and will until the date of publication keep all unpublished materials confidential. "Publication" and similar terms will be understood in this sense throughout the SLD Procedure.
D. Fees and the ring-fenced escrow account
1. The fees charged by the Secretariat, Panel Chair and the Panellists, together with any other relevant expenditure, will be paid by applicants in full. The current schedule of fees, as amended from time to time, is published on Nominet's web site. The fees may be subject to increase/reduction in the light of the experience of operating the SLD Procedure and in any event the fees will be reviewed annually.
2. The fees are calculated on a cost-recovery basis, and are based on estimates of reasonable costs at each stage. The actual costs may vary from the fees which are due at the beginning of each stage, in which case the applicants will be required to make up any shortfall. Any surplus may, at the applicant's option, be returned to the applicant at the end of each stage, together with any interest accrued, or may be applied towards the next stage of the SLD Procedure.
Commencing the next Stage
3. If an applicant wishes to progress to the next stage of the SLD Procedure, each applicant who wishes to participate in the next stage must within 10 working days after the end of the ongoing stage:
(a) give written notification to the Secretariat that it wishes to commence the next stage; and
(b) deposit cleared funds in the Account (see D6).
4. In addition to D3 above, in respect of Stages 3-6, where there is more than one applicant:
(a) the applicable fees will be shared equally between the applicants participating in the relevant stage; and
(b) in the event that one or more applicants fail to pay their fees within the prescribed time, they will be deemed to have withdrawn from the SLD Procedure. The Secretariat will give notice to the remaining applicants to make up the resulting deficiency pro-rata within 10 working days and the start of the relevant stage will be delayed until cleared funds are received. Any applicant which does not provide its pro-rata share of any deficiency will also be deemed to withdraw from the SLD Procedure.
5. The Secretariat will acknowledge receipt of all cleared funds.
6. For all applicants, a ring-fenced escrow account (the "Account") will be set up to manage the deposit of monies by the applicants and the payment of fees for processing the stages of the application, evaluation and review process. The Account will be held and managed by the Secretariat. In order to establish the Account, each applicant must place a deposit of £10,000 plus the fees for the next Stage. The deposit will be held against any potential shortfall in funds throughout the SLD Procedure.
7. Before each stage (including before Stage 0), applicants must deposit enough funds in the Account in advance to pay for completion of that forthcoming stage in the SLD Procedure. Since applicants are able to terminate an application at any stage for whatever reason, there is no commitment to providing the funding for any given stage if the applicant wishes to withdraw from the SLD Procedure, so long as that stage has not begun before the applicant's withdrawal.
8. At the end of the SLD Procedure (or following termination before completion of any defined stage) any surplus attributable to an applicant (including any remaining deposit plus any interest but minus fees owed to the Secretariat or the Panel) shall be returned to them.
9. Throughout the SLD Procedure, any shortfall, whether actual or projected, shall be made up by an applicant within 5 working days from notice of such shortfall by the Secretariat. Unless the shortfall is made up in accordance with this paragraph, the application in relation to the relevant stage of the SLD Procedure shall be deemed to terminate at the discretion of the Panel and of the Secretariat.