ICANN Allows .COM Price Increases, Gets More Money
On January 3, 2020, ICANN announced significant changes to the contract it has with Verisign, Inc. to operate the top-level domain .COM.
ICANN and Verisign made these changes in secret, without consulting or incorporating feedback from the ICANN community or Internet users.
Although ICANN has a history of making similar deals behind closed doors, and also of ignoring unified opposition against such action, Namecheap will continue to lead the fight against price increases that will harm our customers and the Internet as a whole. (For more information about Namecheap’s efforts to maintain domain name price controls, visit pricecaps.org.)
The changes to the .COM agreement will have a much bigger impact on the Internet than the previous action for .ORG, .INFO, and .BIZ domains, due to the dominance of .COM. There are 359.8 million total domain names, of which 144 million are .COM — that’s 40% of all domain names. With 161.8 million country-specific TLDs (ccTLDs), there are 198 million generic TLDs (gTLDs). That means that .COM makes up 73% of all gTLD domain names.
ICANN was created in part to introduce competition between domain name registrars, but now ICANN itself is at the heart of the problem, without considering any input from Internet users on these critical decisions.
There are four main concerns with ICANN’s decision:
1. Price Increases
Verisign will be allowed to increase the wholesale price to registrars for .COM domains by 7% each year in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. After a two year “freeze”, Verisign can increase prices by 7% annually during 2026-2029, then another two year “freeze”. This cycle will continue, meaning that within 10 years, .COM domains could cost approximately 70% more than the current wholesale price of $7.85 — and the sky is the limit.
It is not clear how much of these price increases registrars will pass along to consumers, but it is likely that most of these increases will be paid by domain name registrants. The contract does allow for other price increases for certain extraordinary situations, so it is possible prices could increase more than anticipated.
2. ICANN Will Receive an Extra $20 Million
With the contract changes, Verisign agreed to pay ICANN an additional $20 million dollars over five years to support ICANN’s initiatives regarding the security and stability of the domain name system. There is no explanation why Verisign did this, how ICANN will spend the money, or who will ensure that the funds are properly spent.
3. Verisign Can Operate as a Domain Registrar
ICANN also had rules that the operator of a TLD could not operate a domain name registrar. Although in 2012 ICANN allowed operators of new gTLDs to have domain name registrars, it did not apply to Verisign. The new contract will allow Verisign to operate its own registrar, except for selling .COM domain names itself. To circumvent this, it is also possible that Verisign could act as a reseller of .COM domains, through another registrar.
This result is that the company that controls almost 80% of the registrar pricing for domain names will compete directly with all domain registrars, maximizing its control of domain name pricing to the detriment of other competing registrars. While this might result in lower prices to consumers, fewer registrars will harm competition, choice, and domain name services.
Verisign’s registrar could also use its dominant position to charge higher prices to consumers, while at the same time raising registrar prices.
4. ICANN Ignored Previous Comments
As detailed on Standing Up to ICANN to Keep Domain Prices in Check and pricecaps.org, over 3,500 comments were submitted in support of price controls for the .ORG, .INFO, and .BIZ TLDs. Only six comments supported removing price controls. ICANN discounted the comments that were in favor of maintaining price caps. A number of the comments were submitted using an online tool, which caused the comments to be discounted as “spam” by the ICANN Ombudsman.
ICANN removed the price caps, primarily relying upon a biased preliminary analysis from 2009 by an economics professor that did not reference any data.
What Can Be Done About This?
These changes will have a significant impact on the Internet for years to come, and only ICANN and Verisign have participated in this decision. Here is what can be done to stop these harmful changes:
• Let ICANN know how you feel
The Public Comment period is open through February 14, 2020. Submit your own personalized comment using ICANN’s form at https://www.icann.org/public-comments/com-amendment-3-2020-01-03-en/mail_form. You can use the points in this post, but comments will have more impact if they are personalized and based upon your own experience. Everyone on the Internet will be touched by these changes, so together we must tell ICANN how we do not want this.
• Namecheap’s efforts
Namecheap will continue to lead this fight. We are preparing our own comment and working with other domain name registrars to provide additional feedback. The consequences of this decision will impact the entire Internet for many years, and registrars need to ensure that our customers are not harmed by the unilateral decisions made by ICANN staff.
• Support other ICANN community efforts
If you are involved in the ICANN community, make sure your group or organization submits its own comment to ICANN. Every comment helps, and if ICANN sees near-universal opposition, it will be difficult to finalize these changes.
Sincerely,
Richard Kirkendall
CEO Namecheap
Seriously, I hope there will be an investigation by the U.S. Government into this if it happens and that the douche bags involved end up spending lengthy terms in prison. Sounds to me like some f*cktards are trying to take advantage of a loophole they’ve discovered and try to make as many millions as possible without having to justify how it’s spent so they’re executives can get even larger bonuses, probably paid out under the table as well. I’d like to know what the justification for this is? What possible reason could they have to increase cost of already pricey domain extensions. Sounds to me like sheer GREED!
The proposed changes to the .com contract were approved by the US government in 2018, so it is very unlikely to get involved now. More info at: https://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2018/ntia-statement-amendment-35-cooperative-agreement-verisign
I left a public comment to ICANN.
This is ridiculous. I run a very small business and I can not afford to pay any more than what I already agreed to pay.
It seems these increases will cripple a lot of new .coms and stop the growth of the business which is needed to have strong economies. I for one am against these increases. It is hard enough to get started in this time and age with all the increase and regulations put forth by the so-called regulators and policy elites.
This is completely unethical and not expected from a body like ICANN. Shameful!!
Thanks! I just sent them a handcrafted email asking them to reduce the inflation ceiling and warning them that they may lose my business if this goes through as it currently is set to.
Like they give a sh*t… They have done, can, and will always, get away with things like this as consumer law will probably never catch up to and enforce acceptable practices in the domain market.
And won’t this hurt domain squatters who hoard 1000s of domains very cheaply be hit the hardest by this, as presumably most of the increases will affect the lowest price .COM domains?
I think if anything this will encourage use of more varied and newer TLDs. .COM shouldn’t sit as king forever.
I find the upcoming changes in the new deal between Verisign and ICANN is wrong. Important big decisions like this wich will affect millions of internet users should not be down to only two companies to decide. The internet consumers, both users and the industry as a whole should be listened to in big important deals like this. In many countries there are competion rules that wouldnt allow near monopolies like this being created. Please listen and respect the rest of us users and keep important deals like this transparent and open for inputs from all users of the net. We are one world. Lets work together and. Lets not let greed rule.
They are thieves, they have no other name!
they help to make the internet lose one of its advantage to be available for all to have chance to sell , write , show , share their thoughts and items
So unfair!!!
I think the opposition to all this would be a lot more effective if you used a platform like change.org? People could easily register their opposition and there would be a much bigger response.
Of course, the other thing to do is just not buy .com domains 🙂
Negatory ICANN!
Me to them:
Hi folks
This could be seen as corrupt
We often think of corruption as under-the-table payments in brown paper bags. However, corruption is defined more broadly than that. It’s the use of public goods for private gain. “Private gain” includes not-for-profit corporations, which despite being NFP, can gain from certain arrangements.
Not all corruption is illegal. This is a matter not of law, but of ethics.
ICANN has, since inception, argued for the DNS as a public good as justification for its monopoly control.
It’s therefore disturbing to see ICANN entering into an arrangement under which the other party will be given permission to increase prices for the .COM domain, and ICANN will receive $20m from that party.
An alternative, more transparent and accountable way for ICANN to raise funds is to increase the fees we, the users, pay ICANN directly.
This would allow ICANN to exercise its governance responsibilities without conflict of interest.
Best
David Week
Hear hear!
Not coincidentally, the button on the ICANN site to leave a comment tries to start a native (rather than a web-based) email application. No doubt this is to discourage comments. Bastards.
Indeed, I wound up having to open that link on my phone to use Gmail to leave a comment.
ICANN thinks THEY CAN do anything they want and unfortunately probably will. Sucks!
F*ck B*tch ICANN To You, ai ai Captain.
Once again big companies being greedy just because they think they can. Do not allow this to happen and/or pass.
Unacceptable. I left a comment. Everyone on the internet should receive a notification about this. Thank you very much for keeping us aware, NameCheap.
Hi,
I tried to leave a comment, but the site would not respond once hitting continue, seems disabled?
they did that to discourage comments from people. just use your phone and open with gmail app.
This is totally wrong. The 2 of them can’t just make a decision without the voice of the public. This is a very big insult to us for not considering involving us in decision making over something that will bring a huge impact on us. It looks like they don’t consider us worthy a while.
I’m gutted!!
The form on ICANN stopped working, I can’t submit my comment on that site.
They did that on purpose to discourage more comments, just use your gmail app on your phone.
This is the email address to send your comments to: comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20@icann.org
If .Com prices increased, I will move all my registered domain names (12 domains) to any other shorter domain consists of two letters instead of three.
This is ridiculous and should be anti-competitive, hopefully this doesn’t proceed I think there should definitely be some consultation with the internet community about changes like this.
Don’t raise prices ICANN!
It’s like abduction. If you used ICANN’s domain name and you are forced to accept any price they set. We shall fight back. We can use blockchain to build decentralized domains. Anyone interested? Please contact me at Jeff AT lives.one ,
I just bought my domain yesterday, this is BS 🙁 🙁 🙁
What do they think ? That we are made out of money. I give my clients their domain names as an incentive, competition out here is fierce, All this will do is increase costs and make it harder for us to bring you customers. This is no incentive to creating more business. Bad idea!
Sent this letter to ICANN comments and a copy to my Congressman:
To ICANN owners and management,
The closed-door agreement with ICANN and Verisign is unfair to consumers but profitable for both ICANN and Verisign. The 7% annual price increases over 10 years can result in a 70% price increase in .com domain names for no good reason whatsoever other than collusion between ICANN and Verisign.
Both of you profit at the expense of the consumer with no logical reasoning to support the increases other than increased profits for both Corporations. This increase would add 70% to the current $7.85 price, which would bring it above $13.40 per domain.
What is your justification for these increases, other than increased profitability for yourself and Verisign? Informed consumers would like to know. We understand that it will increase your income by $20 million at the expense of the consumer over only 5 years. Why?
A copy of this email has been forwarded to my Congressional Representative.
Great response & idea to copy congressional rep. If the domain cost increases by 7% each year, the 10 year result will be more like 100% increase. Use $10 for example. After 10 years = $19.67.
This is very wrong and unethical. How can they just make a decision without considering how the public will feel or the harm it will cause. They should stop this nonsense!
The form on ICANN stopped working, I can’t submit my comment on that site either!
Send your email to: comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20@icann.org
Fatal, cada año menos clientes o empresas quieren su propio dominio y sitio web, los que vivimos de esto hacer sitios web, podemor ir dedicandonos a otra cosa de 25 clientes este año solo renovaron su dominio 3, con este incremento de precio hasta nosotros no renovaremos dominio. com, perdieron la razón por completo
I’d comment but not if it ends up on this public list like what’s going on now. It does say public, but somehow I imagined something less raw.
https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20/2020q1/thread.html
Just click view comments on this page (https://www.icann.org/public-comments/com-amendment-3-2020-01-03-en)
Agree this seems like a backdoor deal and will undoubtedly push the price of .com. It’s also consistent with ICANN’s MO over the past 20+ years. IMHO I think the Internet has already changed – .com isn’t the end game it used to be. The swathes of new TLDs out there and startups that launch with .app or .ai or .something, i think means .com is already less relevant. Like another poster said, won’t it hurt the squatters the most? We might actually see a ton of .com come back onto market as a result? Is that too optimistic? I agree with the other poster that if there’s going to be any kind of community backlash, then it should be done on a petition platform.
This is nothing more than another money grab by a top heavy bureaucracy that pays itself lavishly wasting money like all overlords do when they think no one is looking or lacks the transparency so that we can’t look at what they are doing. This must not be allowed. There must be accountability and moneys previously given must be documented and made public. Where are you spending everything and on what or who are you spending it. We need clarification and explanation of everything. These groups just go on in mystery while money is thrown down a hole in the ground and no one knows where the money ends up. How is ICANN helping us the end user. If there aren’t any secrets then tell us exactly what you are doing with the money. How much is everyone being paid. We need to see the ledger so we know they aren’t flying off to Nice to hobnob with the rich and famous with moneys meant to make systems better. Until that is done nothing should be allowed to increase and there must be justifications for said increases. They just can’t increase things because they feel like it or think things are too cheap for us peasants. They are working for us in the end but like all secret oligarchs they hold themselves above everyone else thinking they are the ones who know all and we stupid morons should just listen and obey. It is high time that we take back the power and make sure that these groups who love to play with our money and make no mistake, we are paying for this, tell us what we want to know. We buy the .com, we pay the fees. They are working for us. We want them to be accountable to us their bosses. That is what we are as a collective, we are their bosses. We need to make sure ,as a collective, that what they are doing is for us and not to fill their pockets or live a lavish lifestyle. This is a job not a holiday cruise with a few phone calls making some lackey do all the work for next to nothing comparatively while the higher ups live like kings. We need to make sure we are getting our moneys worth. No more star chamber events please. Do as we say, we are not your children but your bosses. This is not up for discussion. Stop the secret money grabs and rule changes that hurt us and do what we pay you to do to benefit us and make our systems stronger, faster and safer.
I am totally against this price increase and agree it will affect a lot of small business owners with me included.
Really disappointing to have so much bribery and corruption at that level
I wrote ICANN’s President – Goran Marby, directly to formally register my protest with him and communicate that their proposed changes to the .COM Registry Agreement with Verisign Inc. is Not In My Name.
However, I received a standard response from Russ Weinstein who is the Senior Director, gTLD Accounts and Services at ICANN.
I suggest everyone who like myself is a .COM owner, in addition to submitting a personalized comment via the pubic form link in this blog post, also makes their voice(s) heard directly by Goran and ICANN (their ICANN emails are available via their site as: firstname.lastname @ICANN .org – please do not spam them as your message will get lost).
Just fyi, the form you linked to to submit comments to ICANN ( https://www.icann.org/public-comments/com-amendment-3-2020-01-03-en/mail_form ) does not appear to work; I’ve tried both Chrome and Edge, no response on hitting “continue”. Perhaps others can verify.
It works for me. Don’t forget to click the checkbox.
Yes, I did; but in any case, it seems to be working now.
The Continue button wasn’t working anymore, but the form gets sent here: comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20@icann.org
So you can just send an email to that address.
This is seriously a blow for those who are looking for making websites . The decision taken by them should be made by thinking numerous times. Definitely there will be better option in front of them.
This is totally uncalled for! This is preposterous to say the least! You can be assured, at least I speak for myself, that I will find ways NOT to use domain names, and instead, just use SOCIAL MEDIA to promote any business I’m involved in, if this nonsense persists! I will tell MANY OTHER WEBSITE OWNERS ABOUT THIS ALSO SO THAT THEY KNOW WHAT YOU GREEDY COMPANIES ARE UP TO.
This is the only place which people can trust and buy affordable domains. Now you are going to ruin it.
Hi there,
Just to clarify – like everyone commenting here, we at Namecheap oppose the price increase, and that’s why we have shared this news. We do not want to see .com domains increase in price and hope that with enough public opposition, ICANN will reverse their decision.
We do not support ICANN’s unilateral decision to increase. Com prices.
I just started in Sep. getting my site, and trying to get my business going this is the last thing I need. I am sure everyone else will agree!
Yea I too agree I have been using godady for years just switched to namecheap free private protection.
Should a price increase take place by ICANN, I believe we should organize and force the legislation to have control over this. We could also at the same time file a class action law suit against this company or any other company involved in gauging the price of what should be a public domain.
Around $5 increase. I just came to namecheap because it is not expensive as compare to others, but now it is a big shock to me.
Me to them:
Its not easy to live in a developing country, especially that live from the IT industry. We are struggling every day to convincing people and business owner to make their website, meanwhile they are prefer to choose free marketplaces like bukalapak.com and shopee.com, and social media like Instagram and Facebook.
We are live in developing country of Indonesia, with a very low GDP per capita, so yes, Indonesian are prefer to free services instead of investing to the advanced tools like website with their own domain name.
I see Verisign is trying to promote .com by bombarding the YouTube ads, but I pessimistic about that if they also increasing the .com price (70% ?) at the same time.
So if you are pro with the Internet growth, especially on the developing country, you must be on our side. Don’t let the domain price grow.
Thanks for let me share my thought
Best Regards
Haris
“Free Enterprise” at it’s finest! Making secret decisions with the monopoly between ICANN and Verisign, is not in the interest of .COM domain registered uses on the internet.
As our good Swedish environmental activist friend Greta Thunberg would say, “HOW DARE YOU!!
The proposed pricing changes have the very distinct appearance of “pocket lining”. I’m neither happy nor convinced that there are any benefits gained for end users within the space by this maneuver – it’s piracy plain and simple.