The company is concerned about the expired domain system with additional fees and the precedent it may set.
TurnCommerce, which operates the DropCatch expired domain platform, has raised concerns with ICANN regarding a new expired domain system that Donuts plans to implement.
Donuts has filed two Registry Services Evaluation Policy (RSEP) requests (pdf, pdf) with ICANN to approve the new system called Dropzone.
With Dropzone, the registry provides an exact expiration time for each domain, and registrars can request the domains at that time through a discrete EPP server system. If multiple registrars submit a request, the domain is assigned to the first registrar to submit their request.
Afilias, which Donuts acquired at the end of last year, already provides Dropzone for some of its top-level domains. But there is a big difference between the RSEP approved by Afilias and Donuts’: Afilias’ request stated that the fees are the same as a normal registration, while Donuts’ includes additional prices:
In addition to the standard or premium registration prices for a given domain name, the Dropzone service may bear additional application fees to be configured by TLD.
Registration fees, if any, will be billed in addition to the standard registration price for a domain name.
A source told Domain Name Wire that Donuts informed registrars about Dropzone’s pricing, which will be $ 0, $ 2, or $ 4, depending on the top-level domain. It is not known if this is a fee for submitting a request or only for a successful Dropzone registration. Donuts declined to comment for this story.
TurnCommerce is clearly concerned about the precedent Dropzone could set. In its letter, the company states:
Will other registries seek parity with these services, or perhaps introduce other incremental advances towards registry or waitlist auction services that have been denied or controversial from a market perspective? competition?
Verisign has previously tried to generate more revenue from expired domains with a “waitlist” service. The company has also patented other means of distributing expired domains, including a way to offer encoded overdue domains and access pools to recover expired domains.
TurnCommerce’s letter also addresses the vertical integration between Donuts and Name.com. If a fee were to be charged on all expired domain applications (not just successful ones), he is concerned that Name.com could benefit by submitting unlimited applications at virtually no cost, as it is effectively paying itself. -same.
According to the ICANN website, Donuts’ RSEP requests have been approved and are pending contract amendment.
While most RSEP requests are not controversial, it has become more difficult to keep up with interesting RSEP cases as ICANN deactivated its MyICANN system, which sent out email alerts about changes to the ICANN website. ICANN. He developed a new system that doesn’t cover as much content.
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