Dispute Procedure (1) Unless otherwise provided in the Council's Constitution or in this Collective Agreement, any dispute within the registered scope of the Council shall be resolved as set out below: (a) The General Secretary of the Council shall, after consultation with the Secretary of any relevant Regional Chamber, decide whether any dispute referred to the Council must be dealt with by the Council or the Regional Chamber. (b) The Council shall, from time to time, adopt, by resolution, guidelines for the General Secretary of the Council to follow in the allocation of such disputes. (c) When any dispute is allocated to a Regional Chamber in terms of this clause, then such Regional Chamber shall have the same rights, powers and obligations as the Council.
Mediation In the event of any dispute arising under or in connection with this Agreement, before either party may initiate arbitration pursuant to Section 5.2 below, ICANN and Registry Operator must attempt to resolve the dispute through mediation in accordance with the following terms and conditions: (a) A party shall submit a dispute to mediation by written notice to the other party. The mediation shall be conducted by a single mediator selected by the parties. If the parties cannot agree on a mediator within fifteen (15) calendar days of delivery of written notice pursuant to this Section 5.1, the parties will promptly select a mutually acceptable mediation provider entity, which entity shall, as soon as practicable following such entity’s selection, designate a mediator, who is a licensed attorney with general knowledge of contract law, has no ongoing business relationship with either party and, to the extent necessary to mediate the particular dispute, general knowledge of the domain name system. Any mediator must confirm in writing that he or she is not, and will not become during the term of the mediation, an employee, partner, executive officer, director, or security holder of ICANN or Registry Operator. If such confirmation is not provided by the appointed mediator, then a replacement mediator shall be appointed pursuant to this Section 5.1(a). (b) The mediator shall conduct the mediation in accordance with the rules and procedures that he or she determines following consultation with the parties. The parties shall discuss the dispute in good faith and attempt, with the mediator’s assistance, to reach an amicable resolution of the dispute. The mediation shall be treated as a settlement discussion and shall therefore be confidential and may not be used against either party in any later proceeding relating to the dispute, including any arbitration pursuant to Section 5.2. The mediator may not testify for either party in any later proceeding relating to the dispute. (c) Each party shall bear its own costs in the mediation. The parties shall share equally the fees and expenses of the mediator. Each party shall treat information received from the other party pursuant to the mediation that is appropriately marked as confidential (as required by Section 7.15) as Confidential Information of such other party in accordance with Section 7.15. (d) If the parties have engaged in good faith participation in the mediation but have not resolved the dispute for any reason, either party or the mediator may terminate the mediation at any time and the dispute can then proceed to arbitration pursuant to Section 5.2 below. If the parties have not resolved the dispute for any reason by the date that is ninety (90) calendar days following the date of the notice delivered pursuant to Section 5.1(a), the mediation shall automatically terminate (unless extended by agreement of the parties) and the dispute can then proceed to arbitration pursuant to Section 5.2 below.
Informal Dispute Resolution (a) Prior to the initiation of formal dispute resolution procedures (i.e., arbitration), the Parties shall first attempt to resolve their dispute at the senior manager level. If that level of dispute resolution is not successful, the Parties shall proceed informally, as follows: (i) Upon the written request of either Party, each Party shall appoint a designated representative who does not otherwise devote substantially full time to performance under this Agreement, whose task it will be to meet for the purpose of endeavoring to resolve such dispute. (ii) The designated representatives shall meet as often as the Parties reasonably deem necessary in order to gather and furnish to the other all information with respect to the matter in issue that the Parties believe to be appropriate and germane in connection with its resolution. The representatives shall discuss the problem and attempt to resolve the dispute without the necessity of any formal proceeding. (iii) During the course of discussion, all reasonable requests made by one Party to another for non-privileged non-confidential information reasonably related to this Agreement shall be honored so that each of the Parties may be fully advised of the other's position. (iv) The specific format for the discussions shall be left to the discretion of the designated representatives. (b) Prior to instituting formal proceedings, the Parties will first have their chief executive officers meet to discuss the dispute. This requirement shall not delay the institution of formal proceedings past any statute of limitations expiration or for more than fifteen (15) days. (c) Subject to Subsection (b), formal proceedings for the resolution of a dispute may not be commenced until the earlier of: (i) The designated representatives concluding in good faith that amicable resolution through continued negotiation of the matter does not appear likely; or (ii) Thirty (30) days after the initial written request to appoint a designated representative pursuant to Subsection (a), above, (this period shall be deemed to run notwithstanding any claim that the process described in this Section 11.2 was not followed or completed). (d) This Section 11.2 shall not be construed to prevent a Party from instituting, and a Party is authorized to institute, formal proceedings earlier to avoid the expiration of any applicable limitations period, or to preserve a superior position with respect to other creditors or as provided in Section 11.6(a).