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After pointing out that Namecheap didn’t get everything it asked for, ICANN says it’s up to the organization what to do with the decision.
ICANN has published its spin on the Independent Review Panel decision in the complaint brought by Namecheap over removing price caps on legacy top level domains.
Not surprisingly, it points out that Namecheap didn’t get a total victory. But it admits neither did ICANN.
After explaining what Namecheap didn’t convince the panel of, ICANN stated:
Ultimately, however, the IRP panel found that ICANN’s approval of the 2019 Registry Agreements for .INFO and .ORG without price controls violated the Articles and/or Bylaws in a few ways, including ICANN was not sufficiently transparent in its decision making, the Board did not, but should have made the decision about these particular Registry Agreement renewals, and ICANN did not follow procedures for ensuring promotion of the global public interest.
ICANN pointed out that the IRP panel recommended but did not order ICANN’s board to analyze and discuss what next steps to take.
The full panel decision is here (pdf).
Here’s my take on what has happened: ICANN’s staff went into the process of removing price caps on legacy TLDs with the pre-determined decision to remove them. Sure, it went through some of the motions of transparency (e.g., community feedback). But it knew all along it was going to remove them. The organization doesn’t want to be a price regulator.
Now, the panel has pointed out that it should have done more. It should have been more transparent and actually considered all parties. Instead, it just considered what was in the best interests of ICANN (the organization).
I’m not sure that .org and .info will ever have price caps again. But I think the decision could impact future decisions for .com. If the U.S. government ever removes price caps on .com domains, ICANN will have to be more deliberate in its process.
And I’ll repeat this: with the exception of .com, top level domains don’t really have market power over new registrations. But they sure as heck do over renewals. Once you build a site on a domain, the switching costs are enormous.
Categories: Policy & Law
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says
You pasted ICANN’s quote twice.
says
thanks
says
The point is that first-time registration (and their renewals) of domains in popular legacy TLD zones should be affordable, even for hobbyists and people who do not make a profit with their homepages. Hopefully, this will remain the case for popular “basic” TLDs like .COM, .NET, .ORG etc.
says
How to file a legal complaint against namecheap with the ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL’s OFFICE
I have been a loyal customer of NameCheap since ~2012. I have had numerous problems with NameCheap over the years. I have been throttled and the company staff fraudulently mismanaged my accounts costing me hundreds of dollars.
ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL’s OFFICE
Filing a consumer complaint against NameCheap.com :
https://www.azag.gov/complaints/consumer
Email after you filed the complaint:
consumerinfo@azag.gov
Phone numbers:
(602) 542-5763 (Phoenix)
(520) 628-6648 (Tucson)
(800) 352-8431 (outside metro Phoenix)
FEDERAL GOVERMENT:
Filing a Consumer Complaint
https://www.usa.gov/consumer-complaints
Federal Trade Commission (FTC):
https://reportfraud.ftc.gov
NAMECHEAP CONTACT INFORMATION:
Here is the contact emails for NameCheap.com, acquired after years of complaining about the way they treat average customers:
richard.k@namecheap.com CEO, Richard Kirkendall https://twitter.com/NamecheapCEO
legal@namecheap.com Senior legal team
danylo.skotnikov@namecheap.com – Threats from Dan.
legalandabuse@namecheap.com
NameCheap Support support@namecheap.com
Namecheap Renewals renewals@namecheap.com
eva@namecheap.com
matt@namecheap.com
domainsupport@namecheap.com
dmca@namecheap.com
conciergesl@namecheap.com
cloud@namecheap.com
It appears all of the top management have only their first name as their emails.
Here is the information on the company:
NameCheap Address:
4600 East Washington Street
Suite 305. Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ 85034
Phone: 310-259-3259
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