Washington, D.C. — In a recent letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chair Bob Latta (R-OH), and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) have requested information regarding the agency’s internet domain name registry agreement with Verisign, Inc.
The NTIA represents the U.S. government on the Governmental Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a multi-stakeholder, not-for-profit entity founded in 1998 to coordinate the Internet domain name system. Since 2001, Verisign has operated the .com and .net domain name registries. Verisign manages the .com registry under two agreements: a .com Registry Agreement between ICANN and Verisign, and a Cooperative Agreement between the NTIA and Verisign. Both agreements are set to expire on November 30, 2024.
As these expiration dates approach, there have been suggestions that NTIA should reassess certain aspects of both agreements. The Cooperative Agreement will automatically renew on November 30, 2024, unless Verisign provides written notice of non-renewal within 120 days of its expiration. The Department of Justice has previously recommended that ICANN hold a competitive bidding process for renewals of registry agreements.
The current agreement allows Verisign to increase the maximum price charged for yearly registration or renewal of a .com name by up to seven percent over the previous year's maximum price in each of the last four years of every six-year contract period. Verisign has implemented this price increase in every year it was permitted to do so.
The letter from Rodgers, Latta, and Griffith states: “With both a role in advising ICANN and as a party to the Cooperative Agreement, the NTIA bears responsibility for supporting a domain name system that enables the growth of online commerce. Both individual consumers and businesses depend on responsible management of the .com system. Monopolistic elements and excessive domain name price increases stifle the ability of potential .com registrants to conduct business online."
“As such, we seek more information about the NTIA’s process in considering the renewal of both the Registry Agreement and the Cooperative Agreement.”
Contact information for further inquiries is provided: Main: (202) 225-3641; Press: (202) 226-4972.
