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Council Members (with copy to ALAC):<br>
<br>
You may recall that in the draft .NET contract posted for comment
several weeks ago, the pricing section was blank, with the following
comment: [To be negotiated consistent with .NET RFP]. See Section 7.3
here:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.icann.org/tlds/dotnet-reassignment/draft-net-agreement-9mar05.pdf">http://www.icann.org/tlds/dotnet-reassignment/draft-net-agreement-9mar05.pdf</a><br>
<br>
When the final negotiated version was published, I went to that section
to find out what pricing had been negotiated and was surprised to
discover that ICANN will lift the price caps on registry fees effective
1 January 2007. The language is here:<br>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>(a) Prices for Registry Services. <br>
<br>
>From 1 July 2005 through 31 December 2006, the price to
ICANN-accredited registrars for new and renewal domain name
registrations and for transferring a domain name registration from one
ICANN accredited registrar to another, shall not exceed US$4.25
(consisting of a US$3.50 service fee and a US$0.75 ICANN fee). On 1
January 2007, the controls on Registry Operator’s pricing set forth in
this Agreement shall be eliminated, provided that the same price shall
be charged to all registrars with respect to each annual increment of a
new or renewal domain name registration, and for transferring a domain
name registration from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another
(provided that volume discounts and marketing support and incentive
programs may be made if the same opportunities to qualify for those
discounts and marketing support and incentive programs is available to
all ICANN-accredited registrars).<br>
<br>
(b) Adjustments to Pricing for Domain Name Registrations. <br>
<br>
Registry Operator shall provide no less than six months prior notice in
advance of any price increase for domain name registrations and shall
continue to offer domain name registrations for periods of up to ten
years.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
See Scetion 7.3 here:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/net/net-registry-agreement-01jul05.pdf">http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/net/net-registry-agreement-01jul05.pdf</a><br>
<br>
This strikes me as a significant departure from past practices, and I
do not recall any discussion of this at either the Council level or
within the ALAC. I wonder whether market forces will be sufficient to
prevent Verisign from raising the .NET registry fees significantly. At
a minimum, we should have had a conversation about this. Have I missed
something?<br>
<br>
Bret<br>
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