[Comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20] US Department of Commerce said both ICANN and Verisign do NOT have antitrust immunity

[Don Smith]

“ICANN does not have antitrust immunity. U.S. competition laws will continue to apply to ICANN, as they do today.”

 

“U.S. competition laws would apply to the conduct of ICANN and its constituent groups in their performance of the IANA functions to the same extent as those laws now apply to other private entities, and thus these laws can serve to discourage ICANN and its constituent groups from engaging in anticompetitive conduct that would harm Internet users.”

 

With respect to Verisign:

 

“Antitrust Immunity: The Department’s approval of this Amendment 35 is not intended to confer federal antitrust immunity on Verisign with respect to the .com Registry Agreement.”