com / net domains

The ICA says that Verisign’s attempt to increase .com fees is still unjustified

The ICA released a very important statement written by Zak Muscovitch on the price increase of .com domains.

The ICA said that Verisign’s attempt to increase .com fees is still unjustified the despite diversionary tactic.

The important thing here, that is also noted in the statement, is that we should not really care too much about what Verisign says or does but what NTIA and more importantly what ICANN says and does.

Or what ICANN doesn’t do. Its job.

“Shortly after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)’s recent announcement allowing Verisign to pursue increased .com registry fees, Verisign published a blog post questioning the business practices of registrars and domain name investors. The ICA, on behalf of its registrar and domain name investor members, had previously spoken out against a .com fee increase, as did others in the domain industry. Rather than justify a fee hike, Verisign attempted to shift the community’s attention elsewhere. Yet the issue remains that the fee cap currently in place was put there for good reason: because there was no justification for any increase and because the public needed protection from excessive fees. Higher fees for Verisign are not justified, as demonstrated by considering these four key points:

  • Verisign is a provider of technical registry services, it does not own the .com name space;
  • Unlike Verisign’s fees, the prices set by registrars and domain name investors are held in check by competition;
  • Verisign is already well-paid for its services, as evidenced by its substantial profits; and
  • ICANN need not approve fee hikes; on the contrary ICANN ought to assert its right to set reasonable fee levels for its hired registry manager.”

Read the full statement here.

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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

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