Price Protections
TLDR
- ICANN does not consider itself a price regulator.
- The .com TLD is the only gTLD with reliable price protections.
- The .net TLD has limited price protections, but no guarantee they will continue to exist.
- All other gTLDs have weak price protections.
- Research ccTLDs to see if they have any price protections.
Overview
Price protections are controls that are put in place to protect registrants from abusive or predatory pricing.
ICANN’s Position
ICANN does not consider itself a price regulator which makes the contractual price protections in place for .com, described below, uniquely valuable for registrants that intend to invest into developing the domains they register.
ICANN Says:
.com
The .com TLD has price controls that are outlined in an amendment to a cooperative agreement between Verisign and the US Department of Commerce. The US DoC’s influence over the .com TLD acts as an additional layer of protection for registrants.
The .com TLD is allowed to increase prices by 7% per year for 4 out of 6 yearsâan average of 4.67% per year. This benefit was granted to Verisign when the .com agreement, linked above, was renewed by the US NTIA in 2018.
Section 6a of that agreement also grants Verisign several other powerful benefits.
Section 6a
The current term of the Cooperative Agreement shall continue through November 30, 2024, and shall automatically renew for six-year terms, unless the Department provides Verisign with written notice of non-renewal within one hundred twenty days (120) prior to the end of the then current term (“Expiration Date”). Notwithstanding anything in the Cooperative Agreement to the contrary, the Department and Verisign agree that: (i) upon expiration or termination of the Cooperative Agreement, neither party shall have any further obligation to the other and nothing shall prevent Verisign from operating the .com TLD pursuant to an agreement with ICANN or its successor; and (ii) neither party may amend the Cooperative Agreement without the mutual written agreement of the other.
This puts Verisign in an extremely strong position, and it is nearly certain .com registrants will incur price increases equal to 4.67% annually for the foreseeable future.
- Verisign may increase prices as outlined.
- The agreement automatically renews every 6 years.
- If the US DoC opts not to renew the contract as-is, oversight will fall to ICANN who does not consider itself a price regulator.
- Verisign must agree to any amendments to the contract, and it is reasonable to assume they will not accept an amendment that limits price increases to less than what is currently allowed.
The NTIA allowed the .com Cooperative Agreement to automatically renew (archived) in November 2024.
.net
The .net TLD has a limit of 10% annual price increases built into the .net registry agreement (archived). However, the .net TLD has similar oversight to the .org TLD which had price controls removed by ICANN (archived) in 2019.
Other gTLDs
Most gTLDs use ICANN’s base registry agreement (archived) which has limited price protections for registrants. These protections are in the form of a “price lock”, outlined in section 2.10b of the agreement, and “uniform” pricing, outlined in Section 2.10c of the agreement.
Price Lock
Section 2.10b of the base registry agreement says:
Section 2.10b
With respect to renewal of domain name registrations, Registry Operator shall provide each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed the Registry-Registrar Agreement for the TLD advance written notice of any price increase (including as a result of the elimination of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying, Qualified Marketing Programs or other programs which had the effect of reducing the price charged to registrars) of no less than one hundred eighty (180) calendar days.
…
Registry Operator shall offer registrars the option to obtain domain name registration renewals at the current price (i.e., the price in place prior to any noticed increase) for periods of one (1) to ten (10) years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten (10) years.
TLDR: It should be possible to renew a domain for up to 10 years if a registry decides to increase prices.
This protection hinges on the assumption that registrants will become aware of price increases. Most registrars do a good job of notifying registrants about pending price increases, but the way notifications work for premium domains is not clear.
Uniform Pricing
Section 2.10c of the base registry agreement says:
Section 2.10c
In addition, Registry Operator must have uniform pricing for renewals of domain name registrations (âRenewal Pricingâ). For the purposes of determining Renewal Pricing, the price for each domain registration renewal must be identical to the price of all other domain name registration renewals in place at the time of such renewal, and such price must take into account universal application of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs in place at the time of renewal. The foregoing requirements of this Section 2.10(c) shall not apply for (i) purposes of determining Renewal Pricing if the registrar has provided Registry Operator with documentation that demonstrates that the applicable registrant expressly agreed in its registration agreement with registrar to higher Renewal Pricing at the time of the initial registration of the domain name following clear and conspicuous disclosure of such Renewal Pricing to such registrant, and (ii) discounted Renewal Pricing pursuant to a Qualified Marketing Program (as defined below). The parties acknowledge that the purpose of this Section 2.10(c) is to prohibit abusive and/or discriminatory Renewal Pricing practices imposed by Registry Operator without the written consent of the applicable registrant at the time of the initial registration of the domain and this Section 2.10(c) will be interpreted broadly to prohibit such practices. For purposes of this Section 2.10(c), a âQualified Marketing Programâ is a marketing program pursuant to which Registry Operator offers discounted Renewal Pricing, provided that each of the following criteria is satisfied: (i) the program and related discounts are offered for a period of time not to exceed one hundred eighty (180) calendar days (with consecutive substantially similar programs aggregated for purposes of determining the number of calendar days of the program), (ii) all ICANN accredited registrars are provided the same opportunity to qualify for such discounted Renewal Pricing; and (iii) the intent or effect of the program is not to exclude any particular class(es) of registrations (e.g., registrations held by large corporations) or increase the renewal price of any particular class(es) of registrations. Nothing in this Section 2.10(c) shall limit Registry Operatorâs obligations pursuant to Section 2.10(b).
TLDR: Domains that are in the standard fee class are entitled to renewal prices identical to the price of all other domain name registration renewals in place at the time of such renewal. The only exception to this obligation is if a registrant expressly agreed … to higher Renewal Pricing at the time of the initial registration … following clear and conspicuous disclosure of such Renewal Pricing.
This provides a weak form of price protection. The only benefit gained by registrants is the guarantee that registries cannot engage in discriminatory practices where specific domains are singled out for higher renewal fees. For example, the .org registry cannot charge $1,000 to renew wikipedia.org unless they also charge every other .org registrant $1,000 for renewal. This kind of price protection relies on the assumption that a loss of customers will deter registries from increasing prices to unreasonable rates.
Pay Attention!
Pay attention to the identical pricing exception if considering a premium domain.
If registering a standard domain on a gTLD that is not .com or .net, it is also important to be aware of reclassification which undermines the identical renewal price protections.
ccTLDs
As described in the domain selection section, all ccTLDs are managed independently, so it is necessary to evaluate the price protections of each ccTLD independently.