Public Comment

Public Comment is a vital part of our multistakeholder model. It provides a mechanism for stakeholders to have their opinions and recommendations formally and publicly documented. It is an opportunity for the ICANN community to effect change and improve policies and operations.

Контент доступен только на следующих языках

  • English

Name: Zak Muscovitch
Date: 23 May 2023
Affiliation: Internet Commerce Association
Other Comments


Summary of Attachment

The attached PDF file contains the ICA's comments in letter form.

Summary of Submission

Part I of the ICA's Comment covers the proposed registry Service Fees. Part II covers various other proposed revisions.

Verisign currently receives an estimated $130,944,000.00 in .net “Service Fees”, per year - an amount which approaches ICANN’s entire 2023 operational budget of $148 million. Based upon current registration volumes, by the end of the proposed six-year term Verisign will receive $17.56 per .net domain name per year, which amounts to an estimated $231,792,000 per year in Verisign’s portion of the “Service Fees” and an estimated Billion Dollars in the aggregate over the Term of the 6-year Agreement.

Although the expiring Agreement provides a presumptive right of renewal, Sections 4.2 and 4.3 makes it clear that the parties may negotiate the terms of a renewed Agreement and those terms include Service Fees. 

ICANN should follow the common practice of identifying the best combination of quality services and low prices available in the marketplace by seeking conditional bids for the .net registry Agreement. This would enable ICANN to identify the lowest Service Fees that a qualified competitor to Verisign would be prepared to accept.

With this crucial data in hand, ICANN could then undertake meaningful negotiations of Service Fee terms with Verisign. If Verisign then declined to renew the Agreement with the competitively identified Service Fees, the Agreement would expire and ICANN could then award the contract to the successful conditional bidder.

It is irresponsible for ICANN to agree to any amount of Service Fees, let alone perpetually increasing Service Fees, without first determining the appropriate level via a competitive conditional bidding procedure. Competitive service fees are likely in $1 - $3 per domain name range, rather than the $9.92 plus 10% increase per year, compounded, as proposed. The US DOJ already advised ICANN that it should be requiring competitive bidding prior to renewing registry agreements. An economic study is also crucial.