Icann approves VeriSign .com monopoly

The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has voted to approve a settlement with VeriSign that allows the company to raise the price of domain registrations. 

Icann, which oversees the world's top level domains, voted 9 to 5 in favour of the settlement. Board members will be allowed to post statements about their votes on Icann's website in the coming days.

VeriSign operates the infrastructure behind .com internet domains under an exclusive licence.

The settlement ends a lawsuit that the company filed after the 2003 Site Finder debacle, in which it tried to reroute internet traffic from unregistered and mistyped domain names to a VeriSign owned website.

The arrangement grants VeriSign the right to raise prices for .com domain registrations by seven per cent annually in four of the next six years. The company also agreed to pay Icann an annual contribution of $6m to $12m.

VeriSign currently charges $6 per domain per year and the price hike could boost its revenues by as much as $140m between now and 2012.

A group of domain registrars has attacked the settlement, however, claiming that the deal provides VeriSign with an unwarranted financial windfall and allows the company an uncontested renewal of its contract in 2012.

VeriSign insisted that the settlement is similar to the arrangements that it made for the .net domain last year. The company said in a statement that it was pleased with the decision and called the agreement "straightforward".

While the Icann board's approval removes a major hurdle, the new domain registration rules still require approval by the US Department of Commerce.