[Ecommerce] ICANN, Verisign, Commerce, coalition and the Waiting List Service

[Manon Ress]

ICANN, Verisign, registrars, domain names, anti-competitive and anti
consumers decisions ...a deja vu all over again?

Do you remember when back in 1999, ICANN required Verisign to finally
allow competitors to enter the market for registering domain names? The
average domain name price for consumers fell from around $50 to just $9
per year.

Well, here's a new episode. There' is a kind of "new market" for domain
names that expire or are deleted by their owners. Each domain name
expires after its registration period, typically one to ten years.
Domain names that are deleted or are allowed to expire are up for grab
again after 35 days. In this expired domain name market, many expired
domain names are re-registered by others who compete to purchase them.
Again there's a "fight" between various businesses to grab the names
with the most re-sale value. Today, dozens of companies compete in this
market. As they say =93competition is fierce and has led most companies to
charge a fee only when they have successfully obtained an expired domain
name for a customer=94. Well, it looks as if Verisign is about to get a
much better deal.

The Wait Listing Service (WLS) proposed by the ICANN-selected registry
VeriSign, Inc (the proposal has been discussed many, many times but it's
finally coming to a decision) is an exclusive dealing arrangement. Under
the WLS, existing competitors would be excluded from the expired domain
name market. Consumers will be required to pay at least $24 per year per
domain name with absolutely no guarantee that the domain name will
actually expire at some point.

As Central Connecticut State University Professor Michael Gendron stated
in his message to the Board, the WLS "corrupts the supply and value
chains for domain names" even as it "drives up transaction costs and
negatively affects consumers."

Next episode: approval by Commerce is required due to VeriSign's role as
the registry that commands the database of all .com and .net domain
names. This episode is made more interesting (?) because a week ago
Verisign sued ICANN claiming, among other things, that the governing
body has no jurisdiction over the introduction of the WLS. An ad-hoc
group of registrars also sued ICANN -- and Verisign -- on the eve of the
meeting to block WLS approval.
Will commerce approve the deal or step in?

Of course, everyone in this fight is doing all of this for the
consumers=85.what do you think?

In any case this is not over.

If you want to hear the story from the coalition made up of Pool.com and
its partners fighting the WLS you should call Ari Q. Fitzgerald
(202-637-5423) or e-mail QFitzgerald@HHLAW.com
<mailto:QFitzgerald@HHLAW.com>.




--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176