Re: [ga] Registrar acquisition and merger policy

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand <harald@alvestrand.no>]

--On 27. juni 2001 08:44 -0700 "William X. Walsh" 
<william@userfriendly.com> wrote:

> I think a hard and fast policy should be create whereby if an existing
> accredited registrar (or their parent company) already directly or
> indirectly controls X% of the registered domain names, they should be
> enjoined against further acquisitions of accredited registrars.
>
> Enforcement actions can include:
>             - Loss of accreditation (most severe)
>             - Penalty fees payable to ICANN on a per domain basis
>             until they come into compliance
>             - 90 day warning to get into compliance. (least severe)
>
> This would serve to bolster the principles of competition, which is
> one of the guiding principles in the Green Paper, White Paper, and in
> the actual DoC agreements.  It would serve to help avoid anything
> resembling an attempt to become, or regain, a monopoly level position,
> and ensure that there will be enough accredited registrars to provide
> competitive advantages to registrants.

When you say "loss of accreditation", I take it you mean that the acquiring
company as well as the acquired company would lose accreditation?
Otherwise, it won't hurt at all...

Ultimately, there has to be a viable business for multiple registrars;
if Verisign is buying registrars at fire-sale prices because they were
failing, that may be better than them simply disappearing and leaving chaos,
but if Verisign is buying (US) registrars to get rid of competition, there 
should
be some way to hit them with the Sherman act.

Unfortunately I don't think the registrar business is big enough to attract
the attention of the EU competition commissioner yet.




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