In a disturbing development, ICANN has proposed a $2 fee on the registry for a domain name transfer on its proposed .jobs and .travel domain extensions. However, the language is somewhat unclear:

(c) Registry-Level Transaction Fee. Commencing as of the Effective Date,
Registry Operator shall pay ICANN a Registry-Level Transaction Fee in an
amount equal to US$2.00 for each annual increment of an initial or renewal
domain name registration or for transferring a domain name registration from one
ICANN-accredited registrar to another during the calendar quarter to which the
Registry-Level Transaction Fee pertains. For purposes of this Section 7.2(c), a
“domain name registration” shall include a domain name within the registry for
the TLD, whether consisting of two or more (e.g., john.smith.name) levels, about
which Registry Operator or an affiliate thereof maintains Registry Data.

My take: First, the $2 fee per year paid to the registry is much less than the current .com rate of $6. Therefore, you might see .jobs and .travel domains much cheaper than .coms currently sell for. Second, the $2 “transfer” fee may be in lieu of the $2 the gaining registrar has to pay the registry for your one year extension upon transfer. Therefore, it might not really be a “tax”. Does anyone have additional insite into these proposed rules? Please comment.

Related posts:

1. .Travel, ICANN, and commercial interests
2. ICANN may review domain transfer procedures
3. VeriSign to Pay $6M More to ICANN in FY 2010