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Registrars raise alarm over proposal for big .com fee hikes:
Last week, ICANN announced that Verisign, the private company that administers the .com domain, will be allowed to raise prices by more than 70 percent over the next decade. Domain registrars—companies that help the public register domains and must pass along these escalating fees—aren't happy about it.
"ICANN and Verisign made these changes in secret, without consulting or incorporating feedback from the ICANN community or Internet users," registrar Namecheap wrote in a blog post. "Namecheap will continue to lead the fight against price increases that will harm our customers and the Internet as a whole."
On Sunday, my Ars Technica colleague Kate Cox got a notification from her registrar, Dynadot, warning that "price increases on the registry level unfortunately result in price increases at Dynadot."
To register a .com domain on behalf of a customer, a company like Namecheap or Dynadot must pay Verisign a $7.85 fee. Registrars typically add a few dollars on top of this fee, but fierce competition among registrars limits their ability to raise prices. But Verisign itself doesn't have competitors; if you want to register a .com address, you have to do business with Verisign.
To prevent Verisign from abusing this monopoly, ICANN caps the fees Verisign can charge.
The new contract allows Verisign to raise the current $7.85 price by 7 percent per year over the next four years—far faster than expected inflation over that period. Verisign would then be required to keep prices flat for two years before it could begin another four-year cycle of 7 percent annual price hikes. Add this all up, and the price of a domain registration could rise 70 percent to $13.49 by 2030. If inflation stays near the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target during that period, Verisign's inflation-adjusted revenue will rise by about $4 per domain, per year.
That would represent a massive windfall for Verisign because according to Namecheap, there are more than 140 million .com domain names registered. So Verisign would reap more than $500 million in additional revenue, each year, for running the .com registration database.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday February 16 2020, @04:24PM (3 children)
The whole system should be getting more efficient over time, not less, as the systems are established, processes are automated, etc.
If Verisign is starting to tax the internet rather than just covering expenses to do their rather simple and clearly defined job, I'd like to see a clear statement of what value they are returning in exchange for the tax increase.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2020, @06:01PM (2 children)
This kind of rent-seeking is the American way and is exactly why most of the world thinks America is a world of shite, and would probably back Huawei
in any kind of shoot-out.
America needs to get its act together quickly on this one.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Reziac on Monday February 17 2020, @02:51AM (1 child)
And here I was about to note that no sooner did ICANN depart from America than we started getting this domain cost inflation. Hmmm....
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 17 2020, @03:24AM
Departing US control doesn't mean it "goes to a better place." Most of what's wrong with US policy revolves around what the US allows to happen offshore.
🌻🌻 [google.com]