Lawsuit May Impact ICANN Debate
A California appeals court's reinstatement of an antitrust lawsuit against a firm that administers the .com and .net domain name registration systems could add a new wrinkle to the ongoing debate in Washington over the future of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and its relationships with various entities that have a stake in the security and stability of the World Wide Web. The unanimous 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last Friday will allow an Internet industry trade group to proceed to trial on claims that Mountain View-based VeriSign inflated the cost of domain names by engaging in predatory and monopolistic behavior. The court reversed an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte, who dismissed the suit brought by the Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT) four years ago.
The lawsuit alleged VeriSign secured the ICANN contract through 2012 without a competitive bidding process. After solidifying its control of Internet addresses ending in .com, VeriSign has incrementally increased registration fees. At a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee last week, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., asked VeriSign Chief Technology Officer Ken Silva whether his firm planned to raise rates again in 2009. Silva could not answer. At the same hearing, an executive at Web hosting firm GoDaddy argued the manner in which the VeriSign-ICANN deal was negotiated lacked transparency and an official from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration pledged to conduct "a fulsome review" involving the Justice Department and others when the contract's expiration nears.
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