The Interactive Advertising Bureau has come out against the plan to introduce top-level domains, saying it would cause “incalculable financial damage”.
The plan was originally introduced by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers earlier this year.
But the IAB has said that the new domain name system that would allow brands to create their own domains could result in “cyber squatters”.
“This could be disastrous for the media brand owners we represent and the brand owners with which they work,” chief executive and president Randall Rothenberg. “We hope that ICANN will reconsider both this ill-considered decision and the process by which it was reached.”