Thu 15. Aug 2024, 15:03
The US government has announced talks on the level of .com fees: at the initiative of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the aim is to seek amicable solutions with the registry VeriSign Inc.
VeriSign has been managing .com, probably the most valuable resource in the Domain Name System (DNS), since 2001. And this will not change in the near future. As the NTIA announced in a letter dated 2 August 2024, it intends to renew the so-called ‘Cooperative Agreement’ with VeriSign. In doing so, the NTIA, which is subordinate to the US Department of Commerce, is defying public demands, in particular from the American Economic Liberties Project, the Demand Progress Education Fund and the Revolving Door Project, which had demanded that the NTIA provide VeriSign with written notification of the non-renewal of the ‘Cooperative Agreement’ in order to terminate the contract completely and initiate the process for an open bidding procedure on the free market. Together with ICANN and VeriSign, the NTIA would form an ‘incestuous legal triangle’ that would allow VeriSign to make excessive profits without offering a better product or service. Most recently, three Republican representatives of the US House of Representatives also raised the possibility that VeriSign would have to face a public tender. However, the NTIA has now emphasised that the ‘security, stability, and resilience’ of the DNS is of the utmost importance to it and is in the public interest. It therefore intends to extend the agreement with VeriSign, according to NTIA Assistant Secretary Alan Davidson.
At the same time, however, he opened the door to discussions about the level of .com fees. Currently, VeriSign has the right to increase the maximum price received for the annual registration or renewal of a .com domain by up to seven per cent over the previous year in the last four years of each six-year contract period, a right VeriSign has always exercised in full. The NTIA is therefore giving in to public pressure: ‘At the same time, in light of recent public inquiries, NTIA has questions related to pricing in the .com market. We are therefore pleased that Verisign has agreed to discussions regarding .com pricing and the health of the .com ecosystem, including retail and secondary markets. The parties will discuss possible solutions that benefit end-users, both businesses and consumers, and serve the public interest. To inform these conversations, NTIA will draw on the expertise of its federal government partners as appropriate,’ said Davidson. VeriSign's response was prompt: ‘We have observed that our capped .com price increases have not always been passed through to benefit end-users and therefore we welcome an opportunity to have this important discussion. We are prepared to consider structures to address this and other issues, including ways to make .com pricing more predictable for the channel as part of it’, said VeriSign CEO Jim Bidzos. When these talks will take place and whether they will actually lead to a further fee cap is currently completely open.
One of VeriSign's core arguments against changing the current regulations is that numerous domain registrars have increased their fees far more than VeriSign itself. This increases the profit per domain, even if the number of registered domains remains the same or - as has been the case with .com for several months - even decreases. In addition, domains are often sold on the secondary market at prices far above the usual registration fees. In any case, one thing is clear for 1 September 2024: the purchase prices for .com will rise as planned from US$ 9.59 to US$ 10.26. And the next presidential election in the USA is sure to come.
You can find the letter from the NTIA at:
https://www.ntia.gov/other-publication/ ... r-verisign