RE: [registrars] [Fwd: [council] Removing Price Caps on Registry Fees]

["Bhavin Turakhia" <bhavin.t@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Never a dull moment in a registrars life ....

This is definitely serious. There are no market forces at play when it comes
to a registry. Especially the .net registry. If com and org are being sold
to registrar at 6 bucks, nothing really prevents .net being hiked to 6 bucks
again.

I was under the belief that the pricing to registrars was one of the
variables in the bid and that the same would apply throughout the duration
of the contract.

Is this consistent with the .NET RFP? Did the RFP have a provision that
stated the price would not be capped?

Marcus or someone from CORE could shed some more light on this - considering
they were one of the RFP applicants. Was this a part of the .NET RFP.

Meanwhile I am adding this to the Luxembourg agenda

bhavin
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ross Rader
> Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 2:39 AM
> To: registrars@xxxxxxxx
> Subject: [registrars] [Fwd: [council] Removing Price Caps on 
> Registry Fees]

> I'm rather surprised by this. It is a very concerning development.
> 
> - -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [council] Removing Price Caps on Registry Fees
> Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 13:36:24 -0700
> From: Bret Fausett <bfausett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> CC: ALAC <alac@xxxxxxxxx>
> References: <DHEIJCFHPEMGGMBMIIDAIEALGJAA.michael@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> Council Members (with copy to ALAC):
> 
> 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:
> 
> http://www.icann.org/tlds/dotnet-reassignment/draft-net-agreem
> ent-9mar05.pdf
> 
> 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:
> 
>         (a) Prices for Registry Services.
> 
>          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).
> 
>         (b) Adjustments to Pricing for Domain Name Registrations.
> 
>         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.
> 
> See Scetion 7.3 here:
> http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/net/net-registry-agreemen
> t-01jul05.pdf
> 
> 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?
> 
>            Bret
> 
> 
> - --
> Regards,
> 
> 
> 
>                        -rwr
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>                 "Every contrivance of man, every tool, every 
> instrument,
>                  every utensil, every article designed for 
> use, of each
>                  and every kind, evolved from very simple beginnings."
>                         - Robert Collier
> 
> 
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