House Commerce Republicans Press NTIA on Verisign .com Registry Agreement
House Commerce Committee GOP leaders pressed NTIA Thursday on its handling of the contract with Verisign to operate the .com and .net domain name registries amid concerns that the company has made “excessive” increases in the price of .com domain…
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names that “stifle the ability of potential … registrants to conduct business online.” NTIA contracted Verisign to operate the registries in 2001 and that agreement will automatically renew Nov. 30 absent the company providing “written notice of non-renewal within 120 days of its expiration,” House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (Ohio) and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith (Va.) said in a letter to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. Since its 2006 renewal of the .com agreement, Verisign “has had a right of renewal, rather than ICANN holding a competitive bidding process for managing the .com registry at the expiration of each agreement.” DOJ “has previously recommended ICANN hold a competitive bidding process for renewals of registry agreements,” the GOP leaders told Davidson. “Members of Congress have also noted that Verisign’s exclusive control of .com allows it to operate as a monopoly over the .com registry.” Verisign “has since instituted a price increase of the maximum amount in every year it was allowed to do so,” the lawmakers said: “Some have argued that Verisign enjoys considerable profit margins from managing the registry, charging far more than it costs to operate it.” The lawmakers want information by Aug. 8 on NTIA’s negotiations with Verisign about renewal of the .com contract, whether the agency has studied the effect of .com price increases on the domain name marketplace and what sort of outreach it's done with other domain name stakeholders.