An unpleasant surprise was given by a company called 101domain, one of the leaders of the domain market, to some of its clients. Thus, one of the registrants who registered a domain with 101domain more than a month ago in the new domain zone .みんな (Japanese for «everyone») received a notice that a name he had chosen turned out to be a premium one. This is why registration price is not $12,99, but $1600 and $1587,01 are to be paid immediately, otherwise the registration will be canceled. Especially curious is that the note was received on April 22, while the payment had to be made April 24, a rather short deadline.
101domain explains that the situation was caused by technical and organizational problems when lists of premium domains were received. They highlight that this incident has affected only about 50 domain names, all of them registered in .みんな domain. As compensation for the inconvenience 101domain promises clients that refuse to pay a total refund of the registration fee and a coupon for a 20% discount for their next registration.
Domain .みんな is registered by one of the structures of Google, however, it is unclear whether change of name status has anything to do with company’s policy. Meanwhile, many experts have expressed their outrage concerning the situation and ask rhetorical question: in what other field of business can anyone make you pay ten times more for the good you purchased more than a month ago on the strange grounds that it’s price for some reason has changed.
