news Dan.com to increase comission from 9% to 15% effective Feb 1st 2023

[MadAboutDomains]

Just received this email from Dan.com about commission increases (snippet of email):

Thoughts?

 

[Gorilla]

@Joe Styler

This is a disturbing mess it is time to show up and make some responses, don't leave poor @James Iles dealing with this mess alone, he is trying to help but it is obvious that he has no influence on decision making at Godaddy.

Do you have any comments on this:



And this:

This is gonna sound cruel, but it really seems GD just used James and Cyger as pawns for GD to keep a positive perception in the community, because they are well loved with domainers. But GD knew that the community will be stirred up with the commission changes.

 

[Gorilla]

Exactly! it is clear that their intention was not making profit from extra small commission BUT to eliminate competition and hurt them as much as possible.

I bet they tried to buy SH but they turned down the offer. Now they are cornering them.

As I said before you should compete by providing better services and product NOT by buying out and eliminating competitors one by one!! That will hurt customers.

There must be some sort of customers protection entity for internet services

Well it kinda backfired, but they really have a monopoly and they know it, we are kinda stuck with their great reach of potential clients with the Afternic Network, we kinda depend on the network for smaller domains.

 

[tonyk2000]

U.S. companies are not immune from overseas fines. And, GoDaddy has a strong EU presence ...

Italy fines Amazon record $1.3 bln for abuse of market dominance

MILAN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Italy's antitrust watchdog said on Thursday it had fined Amazon 1.13 billion euros ($1.28 billion) for alleged abuse of market dominance, in one of the biggest penalties imposed on a U.S. tech giant in Europe.
Italy's watchdog said in a statement that Amazon had leveraged its dominant position in the Italian market for intermediation services on marketplaces to favour the adoption of its own logistics service - Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) - by sellers active on Amazon.it

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/...os-alleged-abuse-market-dominance-2021-12-09/

Russia's anti-monopoly agency has fined Booking.com a record €14.9 million for alleged market dominance.

Booking.com was accused of preventing Russian hotels and hostels from offering their services at lower prices on other platforms.

"For hotels, this meant that they could not set the prices for their services lower on other sales channels than on Booking.com."

"Such actions restrict competition in the market and harm the interests of hotels," it added.

Source:
https://www.euronews.com/2021/08/27...com-record-14-9m-for-alleged-market-dominance

 

[Dane]

Yes, now is the time for him to get aggressive. A reasonable pricing plan for 1500 and below as @Dane says above would be ideal.

Good news. A new pricing plan is coming soon.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Good news. A new pricing plan is coming soon.

Thanks for letting me know...hopefully it will come in at a good price point.

 

[Sheogorath]

I have changed most of the nameservers to Sedo and I intend to do most of my business there.
I used to mainly use Dan and Afternic, but no longer.
I don't like monopoly.
If a Buyer wants to buy it, he could simply navigate to the Domain Lander and make me an offer/buy now and all through Sedo.
Sedo's new Domain Sale Landers(sl1.sedo.com & sl2.sedo.com) are of good quality, no lesser than Dan's.

 

[topdom]

Sedo's new Domain Sale Landers(sl1.sedo.com & sl2.sedo.com) are of good quality, no lesser than Dan's.

thanks. an example (of a domain parked this way) would be great. Also wondering whether Sedo still shows our info to fake (or any other) buyers.

 

[Sheogorath]

thanks. an example (of a domain parked this way) would be great. Also wondering whether Sedo still shows our info to fake (or any other) buyers.

Sedo's own example from their article about the new for Sale Landers is virtualkey dot net.

Last time I had a non paying Buyer was a few years back, back then the info was revealed to both Parties with an option to take a legal action of my own against the non paying Buyer, I chose to let it go because the purchase price was not worth the time and effort to take it to Court.
My humble guess(not a legal advice), is that in most cases Sellers won't opt for a legal action against non paying Buyer(too much mess and a costly one).
I suggested to Sedo that a Buyer needs to pay at least 5% of the purchase price before a Domain is considered reserved. Until then a Domain should remain in the Market for all to see.

*Note: My reply may be a bit off topic, I merely answer to the above question.

 

[silentg]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624416659694923777

There's plenty of investors who sell domains after expiry. If the domains are still at GoDaddy, they're still GoDaddy parked pages. They think it's ok to charge 25% is just ridiculous.

 

[Future Sensors]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624416659694923777

There's plenty of investors who sell domains after expiry. If the domains are still at GoDaddy, they're still GoDaddy parked pages. They think it's ok to charge 25% is just ridiculous.

Leaving aside my general opinion about the 25% fee for sales with non-GoDaddy nameservers active at the time of sale, the domaincontrol.com nameservers should be included in the list of GoDaddy network nameservers. Currently, they're not included:

 

[Future Sensors]

The challenge for GoDaddy is probably to differentiate between regular GoDaddy customers using standard domaincontrol.com nameservers that they can configure themselves (GoDaddy has less control over that), and other uses of the same nameservers such as with expiring domain names. But there are plenty of smart people at GoDaddy who can find a solution for this.

 

[Recons.Com]

The challenge for GoDaddy is probably to differentiate between regular GoDaddy customers using standard domaincontrol.com nameservers that they can configure themselves (GoDaddy has less control over that), and other uses of the same nameservers such as with expiring domain names. But there are plenty of smart people at GoDaddy who can find a solution for this.

It can be solved with simple algorithm, "if a name prior to expiry had dan/afternic and other qualified ns, then keep the ns until drop, else change to domaincontrol.com".

 

[Business Brands]

I believe Topdom was asking for an actual website example from you. But thanks for clarifying some of the potential benefits, especially the one citing that you are not providing traffic to help sell someone else's domains!

People come to my domain Antiques.org, why would I park it at a marketplace, advertising 4 000 000 someone else domains with my traffic? And then pay 15%? How stupid can you be?

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

@BusinessBrands
You own antiques.org?
I see it is listed on afternic and godaddy actions. Weren’t we just talking about you don’t list on those places?

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I would have used DaaZ (just a lander alternative for those in need of one; while I'm still 100% at Afternic). tried them for a bit long time ago. Except their landers are through Cloudflare, which renders them mostly unusable.

I'll never understand that.

Could you explain further why you feel that Daaz's use of the Cloudflare landers renders them mostly unusable? Daaz still seems like an interesting alternative, so I'd love to understand your perspective here.

 

[justlife]

Is there any update on the pricing policy? Do we really need to put the same BIN price for lander and Afternic?

 

[Sutruk]

Russia's anti-monopoly agency has fined Booking.com a record €14.9 million for alleged market dominance.

Booking.com was accused of preventing Russian hotels and hostels from offering their services at lower prices on other platforms.

"For hotels, this meant that they could not set the prices for their services lower on other sales channels than on Booking.com."

"Such actions restrict competition in the market and harm the interests of hotels," it added.

Source:
https://www.euronews.com/2021/08/27...com-record-14-9m-for-alleged-market-dominance

And this is exactly what Afternic is demanding right now to their users. It's not enough for them to punish their Afternic users by increasing by a 10% (from 15% to 25%) the fees if you don't point your landers to their nameservers, but now they also want everybody to put the same price on their landers if they are not pointing to their "network" of nameservers. I guess they want to break the World Guiness record of Monopolistic behaviour.
I bet the European Commission would like to know about their "fixed price" and Anti-competitive behaviour, as well as the US Anti-trust Agency.

And now they are telling us, everyone, to put the same price everywhere. This blatantly goes against the antitrust policy about Price Fixing..

You Afternic, are telling us that you will charge a whopping 25% if we don't point our Landers to your Nameservers. Now don't tell us to put the same price on our landers, because its YOU who are increasing the price of our product by a 25%, a whopping 25% more than if we sell it using our landers by using a fair escrow service like Escrow.com.

-----------------------------------------------------

Price Fixing​

https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance...itrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing

Price fixing is an agreement (written, verbal, or inferred from conduct) among competitors to raise, lower, maintain, or stabilize prices or price levels. Generally, the antitrust laws require that each company establish prices and other competitive terms on its own, without agreeing with a competitor. When purchasers make choices about what products and services to buy, they expect that the price has been determined on the basis of supply and demand, not by an agreement among competitors. When competitors agree to restrict competition, the result is often higher prices. Price fixing also includes agreements among competing purchasers or competing employers about the prices or wages they will pay. Price fixing is a major concern of government antitrust enforcement. Individuals and companies that knowingly enter price-fixing agreements are routinely investigated by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies and can be criminally prosecuted.

-----------------------------------------

https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-laws-and-you

Antitrust Laws And You​

Essentially, these laws prohibit business practices that unreasonably deprive consumers of the benefits of competition, resulting in higher prices for products and services.

The Sherman Antitrust Act​

This includes agreements among competitors to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate customers, which are punishable as criminal felonies.

The Sherman Act also makes it a crime to monopolize any part of interstate commerce. An unlawful monopoly exists when one firm controls the market for a product or service, and it has obtained that market power, not because its product or service is superior to others, but by suppressing competition with anticompetitive conduct.

The Clayton Act​

This Act is a civil statute (carrying no criminal penalties) that prohibits mergers or acquisitions that are likely to lessen competition. Under this Act, the Government challenges those mergers that are likely to increase prices to consumers. All persons considering a merger or acquisition above a certain size must notify both the Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission. The Act also prohibits other business practices that may harm competition under certain circumstances.

 

[Sutruk]

This tweet by Mr. Berryhill is quite descriptive about the situation. Priceless as always!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621261181607444480

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

And this is exactly what Afternic is demanding right now to their users. It's not enough for them to punish their Afternic users by increasing by a 10% (from 15% to 25%) the fees if you don't point your landers to their nameservers, but now they also want everybody to put the same price on their landers if they are not pointing to their "network" of nameservers. I guess they want to break the World Guiness record of Monopolistic behaviour.
I bet the European Commission would like to know about their "fixed price" and Anti-competitive behaviour, along with the US Anti-trust Agency.

Demanding that the pricing being the same across the board, even on non-GD-related sites, does raise some anti-trust concerns.

The underlying policy may relate to their demand to have payment of their 'fees' up to six months after an "introduction" of a domain buyer on their website. How can they prevent that buyer from going elsewhere during those six months and purchasing the domain at a different venue? Well, GD/DAN/AN has a challenge there. With privacy on, they really would have a difficult time proving that it was the same seller as before.

So, by demanding that the prices are the same everywhere, there might be less temptation for a buyer to go elsewhere. This could be a loss for the seller, who may indeed prefer to have lower sales fees using a different venue.

Granted, the flip side of this is that if the GD/AN/DAN site did indeed attract the buyer and convince them to purchase the domain, then there's a argument to be made that they deserve to be paid for providing those resources.

However, it's possible that the initial lander or marketplace didn't actually encourage a sale initially. Maybe other domains were being shown as well prior to checkout, and distracted the potential buyer. Perhaps there was a long legal agreement that needed to be signed to complete the sale. That might turn away some folks.

And, realistically, some end-users may be initially naive, not realizing that there are ways to contact a domain owner and do the sale directly. Or they later learn of other marketplaces. Maybe they abandoned the initial sale, and decided, perhaps months later, to try to pursue the purchase at that point, on other venues.

Hopefully, in the interest of fair competition, some leeway can be provided to allow for different prices on different marketplaces as well as avoiding a demand for fees within six months of an "introduction."

 

[Business Brands]

I would not be surprised if their commission rate exceeds 50% down the road.
Antiques.org is listed on Afternic for double the price, in case they can find the buyer, which is like winning a lottery.

 

[NigelD]

For those of us who have a lot of domains listed on Dan with 'buy now' prices in GBP (British Pounds) this is a mess. Our commission rate has increased to 15% but we can't agree to the domains being listed on afternic/godaddy network unless we are prepared to accept two different prices i.e. a domain listed as £5000 on dan appears as $5000 on afternic. So I could spend most days working out the exchange rate and giving comparable prices on over 2000 domains or just decide not to list on afternic/godaddy network - which is what we've decided. Most of our domains are .uk and orientated to the uk market so wouldn't want them listed in dollars on dan.

Which begs the question why can't Dan/godaddy list our domains in GBP on the afternic network. Or if they must list in dollars why can't they work out the exchange rate and list them at the right price.

 

[trap3]

...

 

[karmaco]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread but......

I just checked through my domains for sale on Dan.com and about 1/2 the domains that it has marked as un-parked are actually parked.

I'm guessing that if any of those incorrectly marked domains get sold, I am going to get charged 25% commission, rather than 15%.

Anyone else seeing this issue ?
Has anyone sold a domain and then got incorrectly charged 25% ?

Thanks

They don’t mark them unparked. They are either resolving or they are not. You need to check your dns settings, type the names into browser etc. Problem is on your end.

 

[Future Sensors]

They don’t mark them unparked. They are either resolving or they are not. You need to check your dns settings, type the names into browser etc. Problem is on your end.

I sometimes experience sporadically that the Parked symbol disappears from a domain in Dan's dashboard. Simply requesting the lander again fixes this immediately. So this could definitely be a (temporary) glitch at Dan as well.

 

[Future Sensors]

(Cross reference)

Recent discussion in the DAN.COM Official Thread, re: having different pricing on DAN lander and Afternic network.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/da...official-thread.1148567/page-221#post-8853532