[Comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20] Concerns over proposed amendments

Pierre Ferran pierre.j.ferran at gmail.com
Mon Feb 10 22:12:01 UTC 2020


For ICANN public consultation,

The internet has always been a space of individual freedom and expression, as well as an accessible space. The proposed changes personally concern me because they would give Verisign, an already large organisation, even more of a strong position over the .COM TLD. I believe the proposed changes would make the internet overall a less accessible space because of the risk of price increase by Verisign, but also of dumping by allowing Verisign to undercut the market as a reseller of .COM domains.

Verisign’s role as an operator of the .COM TLD should be limited insofar as possible to avoid strengthening and already strong dominant position. To guarantee neutrality, Verisign should only conduct operation services, and not be allowed to enter the market place as a registrar or reseller of domains. The equivalent of that position would be for example a company trading its own stock based on its own insider information, a practice that is illegal in many jurisdiction to guarantee a level playing field.

Verisign being allowed to increase pricing with little to no supervision is also concerning. Millions of businesses rely on their .com domain, and it must be made sure that buying a domain remains accessible to leverage the internet. Having your own .com domain is nowadays not important, but necessary.

For these main reasons, I oppose these proposed changes. 

Pierre Ferran


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