.Com domain name increases in price

The ICANN (International Domain Name Management Organization) yesterday voted in favor of an agreement that allowed VeriSign to increase its annual .com domain usage fees by 7%.

This new agreement is very beneficial for both organizations. It was the result of VeriSign's lawsuit against ICANN in 2004.

With more than 48.1 million ".com" domain names still operating at a cost of US $ 6 a year, the monopoly in administering this domain name every year gives VeriSign at least 288, 6 million USD. This level of income will increase even more when the organization has received support for the price increase of domain names.

However, this is not the final conclusion. This agreement needs approval from the US Department of Commerce. But there was one member of parliament who expressed a desire to reject the agreement, Rick Boucher, a member of Virginia's Republican Party, said in a letter to the Washington government last month. In it, Congressman Rich affirmed that the deal was indeed a "serious non-competitive act".

In a recent statement, VeriSign said the .com domain registration agreement was relatively similar to the one reached last year with the .net domain name. "VeriSign is committed to continuing to build and invest in Internet infrastructure to meet the growing needs of Internet users."

However, this agreement does not receive the support of users and distributors of .com domain names. These people accuse ICANN and VeriSign of aiming to gain profits when it comes to the agreement that VeriSign has to pay ICANN an amount of 6 to 12 million USD annually.

The ICANN Association for Transparency (CFIT) initiated a lawsuit against VeriSign and ICANN on this issue. In the case file, CFIT thinks this is an illegal agreement because it allows these organizations to continue to maintain their monopoly. This agreement completely contradicts antitrust and competition laws.

Meanwhile, ICANN confirmed that the organization must accept the agreement to resolve the lawsuit with VeriSign.

This agreement will last until the end of 2012. After this agreement expires, can VeriSign still be able to maintain its monopoly with another agreement?