ICANN Proposes Allowing Unlimited Fee Increases For .Org Domain Names

guest · Apr 24, 2019

ICANN Proposes Allowing Unlimited Fee Increases For .Org Domain Names
The Spurious Justifications for Eliminating Price Caps on .org and Other Legacy Domains
April 22, 2019
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20190...tions_for_eliminating_caps_on_legacy_domains/

ICANN is about to do serious damage to its reputation by making a precipitous, ill-considered leap into the unknown should it follow through on removing price constraints on several legacy extensions, most notably .org. Doing so would expose a global community of non-profits to the risk of quickly-escalating exploitative pricing.

The rationale for eliminating price caps relies on three points, all of which are incorrect — 1) that the registries for the legacy gTLDs should be treated the same as the new gTLD registries, that is as owners entitled to capture the entire value of the name spaces, 2) that price competition will restrain prices, and 3) that it is not ICANN's role to set and to regulate prices.

If price caps are eliminated, competition will not keep prices in check. Competition is effective in restraining prices only if registrants can easily switch one domain name for another.
An organization's domain name becomes its online brand for the life of the organization. Moving to another domain name requires undergoing the hugely expensive and disruptive ordeal of rebranding and is to be avoided at nearly any cost.
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ICANN: Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement

ronjor · Apr 26, 2019

Protests over plan to change domain pricing

BBC 26 Apr 2019
Protests have greeted plans to remove a cap on the price of web domains that end in .org, .biz and .info.
This change could hit a lot of charities, many of which use the .org domain for their websites.
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ronjor · Jul 1, 2019

You're going to pay more for .org and .info domains following ICANN's lifting of price caps

By James Sanders in Security on July 1, 2019
Despite near-universal condemnation of the proposed lifting of price caps during a public comment period, ICANN will allow the operators of .org and .info to raise prices.
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guest · Aug 10, 2019

How the battle over domain prices could drastically change the web
August 9, 2019
https://mashable.com/article/domain-name-price-caps-icann/?europe=true

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is the organization that governs the web’s domain name systems. And it just opened the door to monopolies charging whatever they want for registering a web address.
Ironically, the U.S. government formed ICANN in 1998 to prevent a monopoly.
The decision that could change the web
A little over a month ago, ICANN agreed to a proposal to lift the previously installed price caps on .org domain name registration after the contract with its registry expired. In ICANN’s new deal with PIR, it can now charge nonprofits and other individuals anything it would like to register a domain.
So, what does this mean for consumers? Can the .org registry now charge hundreds of dollars per year for a single domain name?

“Yes, Public Interest Registry is now free to charge whatever price they determine for any .org domain name,” confirmed Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall in an email.
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Your .com domain is next
It doesn’t end with .org domains either. There’s likely more price cap removals on the way. ICANN’s contract with Verisign, the registry that runs the popular .com TLD extension, is up in 2024. The current contract includes price caps, which is why almost anyone can afford the $10 per year domain registration.

However, it seems the price cap fight is not over. Namecheap has already filed a request to ICANN to reconsider removing the price caps.

“This unilateral action by ICANN staff is unprecedented, and we felt we needed to stand up on behalf of our customers,” Kirkendall said. “If the ICANN Board rejects the request, Namecheap is preparing to execute on other options."
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