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]

I compared the archive version and new version of the agreement and the can confirm this part is new
Show attachment 231495

Doesn't this have consequences for SquadHelp premium listings which you have to raise the price on Afternic with about 9% of the price on SH. GD directly attacked SH too.

 

[Charybdis]

Is this price parity requirement even legal in the EU?

There was a similar issue with online travel agencies (OTAs) when the largest players used price parity requirements, see here: Europe’s rate parity history

Now rate parity requirements is banned in most EU countries to prevent monopolistic behavior.

So what about sellers located in the EU? Ok, we are talking about domains not accommodations, but I think it's a similar issue.

 

[Ostrados]

Doesn't this have consequences for SquadHelp premium listings which you have to raise the price on Afternic with about 9% of the price on SH. GD directly attacked SH too.

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

 

[Ostrados]

@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:

I compared the archive version and new version of the agreement and the can confirm this part is new
Show attachment 231495

And this:

"Additionally, the Buy Now Price specified for any listing on Afternic must be equal to the price listed on any for sale lander used by Seller."

OLD - (December 6th, 2022 capture). It is not there.

Seller may change the Buy Now Price at any time; provided however, seller understands and agrees that by changing the Buy Now Price, the Listed Domain(s) is subject to a new valuation by Afternic. In addition, due to the nature of e-commerce and the internet, Afternic is unable to guarantee that any change to the Buy Now Price shall be published on Afternic and its reseller sites before an offer is received. Seller is obligated to complete a transaction with a confirmed buyer for the posted price even if seller tried to increase the Buy Now Price prior to the time of the purchase.

NEW - (February 2nd, 2023 capture). It is there.

Seller may change the Buy Now Price at any time; provided however, seller understands and agrees that by changing the Buy Now Price, the Listed Domain(s) is subject to a new valuation by Afternic. In addition, due to the nature of e-commerce and the internet, Afternic is unable to guarantee that any change to the Buy Now Price shall be published on Afternic and its reseller sites before an offer is received. Seller is obligated to complete a transaction with a confirmed buyer for the posted price even if seller tried to increase the Buy Now Price prior to the time of the purchase. Additionally, the Buy Now Price specified for any listing on Afternic must be equal to the price listed on any for sale lander used by Seller.

 

[bmugford]

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.

The timing of this rollout has been very unfortunate. I am not sure what @James Iles is really supposed to do.

Even assuming the best of intentions, it is tough to be a domain liaison when the company you are representing is starting to build up so much ill will within the domain community, because of their unpopular actions.

Brad

 

[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".

 

[Dream Domains]

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.