I hope the Department of Commerce restructures the guidelines. Saraf and others hope the Commerce Department will force Icann to open the registries to other competitors. VeriSign has 30.6 million active domain names in its registries, up from 13.9 million names this time last year. A Commerce Department spokesman says the agency wants to make sure the agreement is fair for every company in the domain name industry. The Justice Department's antitrust division also is reviewing the agreement, the spokesman says.
Competition benefits everyone.
A level playing field is necessary so that American business is competitive globally. Dyke declined to elaborate on whether Commerce would request any specific changes in the agreement. The department will issue a report on May 14. I'm satisfied that Commerce is taking a hard look at this. Officials with those companies say Icann needs to further encourage competition.