Representatives of domain community have been eagerly discussing the possible renewal of the registration agreement between ICANN and Verisign and the probability of increase in registration fee in .COM. Many respectable resources, a href="http://domainincite.com/">Domain Incite and Domain Name Wire in particular, have published analytical materials on this topic. Current agreement between ICANN and Verisign expires only in 2018, but the need to renew it is related to possible decision of US government not to have control over IANA functions any longer. The problem is that Verisign is not only a registry for .COM and many other leading top-level domains but also an operator of two root DNS servers, it plays an important role in the performance of IANA functions. In this regard, the relationship between ICANN, Verisign and the US government at the moment is regulated by a complex system of tripartite agreements. Because of these agreements the price for registration in .COM was frozen for several years. It was possible to increase the price in the current contract between ICANN and Verisign. However, the US Department of Justice was strongly against the increase in price and vetoed it.
Now considering that the US government is ready to end its control over IANA functions from October already, the very system of tripartite agreements becomes void. Many observers fear that ICANN corporation won't be able to curb the appetites of Verisign and the US authorities won't be able to intervene anymore. The draft of the new agreement between ICANN and Verisign angered many registries. They complain that their agreements with ICANN have more requirements and limitations. Cyber security experts and human rights activists joined them. They point out that a significant part of domains used for criminal activities are registered in .COM and new agreement doesn't encourage Verisign to intensify the fight against this activity. Thus, Verisign might raise the price and not make an effort to improve the situation.
The market situation also doesn't create any preconditions to increase the fee – the demand is growing steadily and .COM is an undisputed leader. Finally, many believe that the current registration fee to be too high ($7.85). For example, head of XYZ.com Daniel Negari, famous for his harsh statements towards Verisign, said that if his company were managing .COM domain, the annual registration fee would not exceed $1.
