Court of Appeals denies VeriSign’s motion, setting up a potential trial over the company’s .com monopoly.
One year after a big legal setback, VeriSign has been setback again by the same court.
Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied (pdf) VeriSign’s motion for a rehearing of its case with Coalition for ICANN Transparency, and the court amended the opinion it released last year on the matter.
The background: Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT) sued VeriSign for its no-bid contract with ICANN, among other things. The district court dismissed the case, and CFIT appealed. Last year the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the district court had erred. VeriSign essentially appealed that ruling, asking for a rehearing. Today the court of appeals denied that motion for a rehearing.
I talked to Bret Fausett, one of the attorneys for CFIT, moments ago. He is obviously excited by the outcome. He said one of two things will happen from here: either VeriSign will petition the Supreme Court to hear the case, or it will go back to the district court for a trial.
Should VeriSign ultimately lose, it would shake up the domain name registry market and the economics of the business. A competitive tender for the .com registry would certainly result in lower wholesale .com prices, which is currently $7.34.
Shares of VeriSign have started trading lower shortly after the release of the ruling from the court.
Domain registrants deserve regular tender processes for the .com contract, instead of the abusive monopoly of VeriSign, who raised fees another 7% just last week (when prices of nearly every technology-related service has been going down).
Ideally, the US Department of Justice would bring an anti-trust case against the company, but congrats to Bret and to CFIT for fighting the good fight on behalf of all registrants.
.org (PIR) also has a sweetheart deal, and should be subject to competitive tenders too, by the way.
The true villain is ICANN, which is supposed to protect registrants.
ICANN = Bloated self-serving bureaucracy.
VeriSign is going to learn that if you are a pig (thanks for all the price increases!) you are going to get slaughtered.
I agree with both posters above.
And, this ruling should be a concern of Icann.
Unfortunately, this will drag on for another 1 to 2 yrs minimum.
The Supreme Court is NOT going to waste their time on an issue like this.
Congrats to Bret and the CFIT for an important and worthwhile decision.
ICANN has only acted in selfishly from day one.
ICANN should have a separate independent body, paid by reg fees, that votes on who should be hired and fired inside ICANN, based on their competency or lack thereof.
If ICANN was a legitimate, and truly represented the best interest of the people and the Net, VeriSign would have been kept in check years ago.
wow.high time this monopoly ended.
why cant UN get control of the domain name system and icann.?
yeh we all know that icnan was birthed by the US and how US wont let go of the internet monopoly but then icann and their cronies are simply mismanaging and screwing up the system.
what was the need for the .xxx approval?
do we seriously need a platform to promote porn?
too many questions but very few answers.
What will be the effect of this verdict on the share price of VeriSign in long term?
The worst thing that will happen to domainers is VeriSign lose in court and more companies like VeriSign open up outside of US.
US guarantees domains are left alone and they somehow “own” the domain. Try owning a domain in Australia or other socialistic country. They will turn off your domain without a trial.
I hope this ends up in Supreme Court are the judges there know what to do.
If the U.N. got control of Icann, they would use it to generate revenue. They would drastically raise the price of the Icann tax.
Plus, influence and corruption would be part of every Icann decision.
Do you really want 192 countries trying to guide the direction of the internet?
I can see how some in other parts of the world can see the .COM extension as a wholely-owned subsidiary of US government and policy.
It has been a part of the rise of the .CC extension.
A dissolution of a monopoly from a US based company may alleviate some of that… but I doubt it, momentum has begun minds have been set.
LOL @ .cc extension….
Congratulations to Bret Fausett and CFIT. I believe this is just the beginning. Especially with the whole issue of Registry-Registrar separation still pending.
If any decision is made to thwart new entrants in the new TLD space, I believe there will be more anti-trust litigation.
The excuse by the incumbent registries are that there will be abuse of registry data will result in higher prices and unavailability of higher value domain names. With hundreds of new TLDs, this concept it flawed. Let the market decide.
If I were ICANN I would incorporate domain registration caps as criteria, which would not allow registries such as Verisign, Afilias, Neustar or registrars such as Godaddy and Enom/Demand Media to integrate.
The issue is Verisign has over 80 million registrations and there is no way .com would ever be replaced or seriously competed against. However, mechanisms to level the playing field should be allowed and exceptions for new entrants to be allowed, especially ones with social benefits.
New TLDs are inherently handicapped relative to the dominant extensions. I am afraid that without implementing the necessary mechanisms for new entrants to incorporate their business models, the whole new gTLD launch will be destined to be a complete failure. The goal is to make new TLDs a success. That is ICANN’s goal. The goal is not to protect others business models and hide behind issues such as “registry abuse” which can be dealt with using the appropriate mechanisms that deal specifically with those type of violations.
Best of luck CFIT.
“If I were ICANN I would incorporate domain registration caps as criteria” – idiot
It is not nice and unconstructive to call people names.
Constantinos has his own opinion and agenda which is fine. Just like ‘Will Tell’ does.
At least, Constantinos agenda is more obvious.
Good news! If we could only speed this through the courts……..
Congratiulations to Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT) in pushing to make .com competitive for all.