Opinion ID: 1208697
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Nature and Terms of the Agreements

Text: VeriSign has been the sole operator of the .com and .net registries since 2001, when it entered into two separate agreements with ICANN (the 2001 .com Agreement and the 2001 .net Agreement, respectively). Those agreements supercede ICANN's previous agreements with NSI. The 2001 Agreements imposed on VeriSign a price cap of $6 per year for registration, renewal, or extension of any domain name. Each of the 2001 Agreements contained a renewal provision that allowed ICANN to place the contract up for competitive bidding upon its expiration. When the 2001 .net Agreement expired in 2005, there was a competitive bidding process that resulted in the selection of VeriSign's bid. VeriSign entered into a new agreement with ICANN (the 2005 .net Agreement). Before the 2001 .com Agreement was due to expire in 2007, however, VeriSign and ICANN agreed to extend it with a new contract (the 2006 .com Agreement). Both the 2006 .com Agreement and the 2005 .net Agreement provide for automatic renewal upon expiration unless a court or arbitrator issues a final order finding VeriSign to be in breach of the Agreement, and VeriSign fails to cure the breach. The 2006 .com Agreement also increases the maximum price VeriSign can charge for domain name registrations. The previous contract's $6 cap was maintained until December 31, 2006, but the new contract provides that cap may be increased seven percent per year in four of the following six years. The 2005 .net Agreement does not contain an express price increase provision. Its price cap of $4.25 per domain name expired on December 31, 2006, leaving no cap in its place.