Auctions of Last Resort
Auctions of Last Resort are described as the final resolution mechanism for contention sets under ICANN's New gTLD Program. Section 4.3 of the Applicant Guidebook states in part:
It is expected that most cases of contention will be resolved by the community priority evaluation, or through voluntary agreement among the involved applicants. Auction is a tie-breaker method for resolving string contention among the applications within a contention set, if the contention has not been resolved by other means.[1]
ICANN auctions are different from private auctions, although either type might use the same basic methodology. One distinguishing factor is that ICANN auctions generate funds for ICANN. A Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds was established to determine what to do with funds raised by auctions of last resort.\\