Domain name arbitration company offers lower fees for “simple” cases.
Czech Arbitration Court, one of the providers of arbitration services under Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), is slashing fees to 500 EUR per case effective March 15 for certain cases.
The 500 EUR fee will apply only in cases where the respondent does not reply to the complaint, and in which “there is no need for Panellists to produce a detailed decision”. If the domain owner responds or the panelist deems it necessary to file a detailed decision, the complainant will be required to pay additional fees.
Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) had proposed a sort of “dual track” UDRP, which was unanimously opposed by the ICANN community. CAC disagreed with the community feedback and adjusted the messaging for the reduced-fee service, according to an announcement on its web site:
We do not agree with this criticism but this is not the key aspect of the proposal. The core of our proposal is the introduction of a substantially lower filing fee for simple cases where no response is filed and there is no need for Panellists to produce a detailed decision.
ADR.EU has therefore decided to remodel our proposal to concentrate on this core idea.
But it’s not a proposal; the new pricing scheme will go into effect on March 15. Compared to the old proposal, there will be no “check box” decision forms, but CAC anticipates “UDRP decisions in simple cases where no response is filed will be quite short and will just outline reasons for the decision.” Panelists will make only 250 EUR per decision, compared with 850 EUR for a regular decision.
If filers start to use CAC’s discounted offering, expect WIPO and National Arbitration Forum to follow. WIPO has already announced plans for a lower cost service.
(Hat tip Jim Davies)
This is a “two-tier-pricing” type of approach; where those who want/need more, pay more; while those who don’t, don’t.
The big drawback is that because one will likely rarely know before filing whether the domain owner is going to respond, you’ll be stuck using CAC; even if you’d have preferred another company had you known the owner was going to put up a fight.
From CAC’s point, though (assuming they have or can get panelists willing to go along w/$600 less compensation), it seems like a great idea.
Quote –
“rarely know before filing whether the domain owner is going to respond, you’ll be stuck using CAC”
Isn’t that what retailing use to call
“bait and switch”?
wait and bill method