Registry Manipulating Auctions & Exploiting Insider Data—ICANN Refuses to Act

[DomainBanana]

I uncovered troubling practices by a domain registry that’s actively bidding on its own domain names in public auctions. It appears they’re doing this to artificially inflate the perceived value of these domains—a clear manipulation of the market.

Even more concerning, this registry is using insider information (registry-level data) to make investments in other domain names. This gives them an unfair advantage over other domain investors, which is not only unethical but a blatant violation of policies designed to ensure fair competition.

I reported these practices to ICANN, fully expecting them to investigate and protect the integrity of the domain market. To my shock, ICANN refused to take any action, claiming that these practices are “perfectly allowable.”

It’s alarming that ICANN, an organization tasked with maintaining the integrity of the domain name system, is turning a blind eye to such clear violations. These actions undermine trust in the industry and put independent domain investors at a severe disadvantage.

I’m curious—has anyone else experienced or observed similar behavior? How do we, as a community, address this when ICANN refuses to enforce its own policies?

 

[Samer]

ICANN will vote to give themselves a raise.

 

[AEProgram]

Can you share the details what you discovered so we can all see?

 

[DomainBanana]

Can you share the details what you discovered so we can all see?

I shared as much as I'm comfortable with at this point

 

[korganian]

Godaddy call center reps have confided with me that they register Godaddy customer domains when they expire. I mean that the Gadaddy employees have access and register customer's domains as soon as they are available and the employees register the domains in their own names for their own personal gain.

Godaddy itself now has access to all the inquires and offers that have ever existed through all the great companies they have purchased and shut down. They are definitely using that info to their advantage. Godaddy kept all the lead info from our names at Uniregistry, but blocked our access to it. There is no fair playing field.

 

[DomainNature]

Godaddy call center reps have confided with me that they register Godaddy customer domains when they expire. I mean that the Gadaddy employees have access and register customer's domains as soon as they are available and the employees register the domains in their own names for their own personal gain.

Godaddy itself now has access to all the inquires and offers that have ever existed through all the great companies they have purchased and shut down. They are definitely using that info to their advantage. Godaddy kept all the lead info from our names at Uniregistry, but blocked our access to it. There is no fair playing field.

Their workers are the biggest squatters in this industry, and hope I m wrong but they whirl around here on NP's with big portfolios.
edit: not forget about NameBright and all it's sub businesses, the biggest parasite in the field, possible backed by ICANN and Verising!
IMO

 

[Grilled]

 

[draco]

Have you looked into the laws regarding shill bidding where the registry is based?

 

[DomainBanana]

Have you looked into the laws regarding shill bidding where the registry is based?

Not sure if what they're doing could be called 'shill bidding' -- they are listing the names they win for sale

 

[AEProgram]

Not sure if what they're doing could be called 'shill bidding' -- they are listing the names they win for sale

I uncovered troubling practices by a domain registry that’s actively bidding on its own domain names in public auctions. It appears they’re doing this to artificially inflate the perceived value of these domains—a clear manipulation of the market.

What you described is shill bidding / bid rigging.

 

[draco]

Not sure if what they're doing could be called 'shill bidding' -- they are listing the names they win for sale

Do they own the actual domains they bid on, or are they just the registry for the TLD of the domains they're bidding on?

i.e. They are the registry for .shilltld and they actually own shill.shilltld and they're bidding on it, and listing it for sale again if they 'win'?
or
They are the registry for .shilltld and they're bidding on domains they don't own, and listing them for sale if they win?

 

[DomainBanana]

Do they own the actual domains they bid on, or are they just the registry for the TLD of the domains they're bidding on?

they are the registry

 

[Patryx]

"Almost every domain name registrar has an exclusive auction partner for selling expired domain names."

"There are two big players in the market for back ordering expiring domain names that haven’t entered the deletion phase yet. These are names at registrars that have agreements with auction services to sell the names before they enter pending delete status."

Maybe these articles could help:
https://domainsherpa.com/auction-partners-of-domain-name-registrars/
https://domainnamewire.com/2017/10/23/godaddy-auctions-vs-namejet/
https://www.dynadot.com/blog/common-question-for-domain-auctions

 

[Patryx]

It’s alarming that ICANN, an organization tasked with maintaining the integrity of the domain name system, is turning a blind eye to such clear violations. These actions undermine trust in the industry and put independent domain investors at a severe disadvantage.

ICANN says:
"ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other.

ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.

Where and how DNs are sold in secondary aftermarkets is its priority? I don't think.

 

[jberryhill]

I reported these practices to ICANN, fully expecting them to investigate and protect the integrity of the domain market.

ICANN has absolutely nothing to do with the "domain market".

The only influence that ICANN has is in the enforcement of the relevant registry contract.

So, if you believe the registry has violated some provision of their registry contract with ICANN, then you need to identify what provision of that contract was, in your view, violated.

Otherwise, it would be interesting to know what power you believe ICANN to have in relation to the conduct of domain auctions. Can you explain what you believe ICANN was supposed to do, and what gives them the power to do it?

I uncovered troubling practices by a domain registry that’s actively bidding on its own domain names in public auctions. It appears they’re doing this to artificially inflate the perceived value of these domains—a clear manipulation of the market.

Like others above, I'm curious what you mean by this.

1. Are you saying that, for example, the registry is bidding in auctions of domain names which were registered by someone who has placed those domain names up for auction? Or are you talking about some kind of auction being run by the registry itself?

2. Is the registry "winning" these auctions? Or are other people deciding to spend whatever the final auction prices are for the domain names?

 

[jberryhill]

they are the registry

That doesn't answer the question asked.

Are they the seller of the auctioned names or not?

 

[DomainBanana]

Are they the seller of the auctioned names or not?

They are not the seller, they have bid on and won expired domains in their own TLD.

 

[DomainBanana]

So, if you believe the registry has violated some provision of their registry contract with ICANN, then you need to identify what provision of that contract was, in your view, violated.

I did, of course.

 

[jberryhill]

I did, of course.

Would you care to let us know what provision of the RAA would forbid a registry from buying domain names from registrants on the open market for resale?

 

[Patryx]

I uncovered troubling practices by a domain registry that’s actively bidding on its own domain names in public auctions. It appears they’re doing this to artificially inflate the perceived value of these domains—a clear manipulation of the market.

Even more concerning, this registry is using insider information (registry-level data) to make investments in other domain names. This gives them an unfair advantage over other domain investors, which is not only unethical but a blatant violation of policies designed to ensure fair competition.

They are not the seller, they have bid on and won expired domains in their own TLD.

Godaddy call center reps have confided with me that they register Godaddy customer domains when they expire. I mean that the Gadaddy employees have access and register customer's domains as soon as they are available and the employees register the domains in their own names for their own personal gain.

Godaddy itself now has access to all the inquires and offers that have ever existed through all the great companies they have purchased and shut down. They are definitely using that info to their advantage. Godaddy kept all the lead info from our names at Uniregistry, but blocked our access to it. There is no fair playing field.

In this rebus:

- The subject is the Registry or the Registrar?
- GoDaddy is not the seller.
- GoDaddy has bid on and won expired domains in their own TLD (example: .co)
- Maybe employees bid and won. Who has bid?
- We are talking about domain name (also SLD) or only extension (TLD)?
- If they "artificially inflate the perceived value of these domains", why worry if the value increases?

Who can solve the puzzle?

 

[DomainBanana]

Would you care to let us know what provision of the RAA would forbid a registry from buying domain names from registrants on the open market for resale?

I am being deliberately vauge about certain things - I will dm you some details

 

[kor]

they have bid on and won expired domains in their own TLD.

Can you explain to me like I'm 5 years old why should they do that?

You say you don't want to give too much detail, but how were you able to uncover insider information without being an insider?

 

[DomainBanana]

Can you explain to me like I'm 5 years old why should they do that?

You say you don't want to give too much detail, but how were you able to uncover insider information without being an insider?

re: your first question -- I'm not sure what you're asking. Obviously a registry has insider information regarding the demand of domain names. So when they bid on domains, they:

1) are using insider information to gain an advantage in the domain market
2) may be artificially inflating the perceived value of domains in their own TLD by running up auction prices

re: your second question -- all of the data around this case is publicly available information, I just happened to be paying attention to it

 

[jberryhill]

I will dm you some details

I participate in discussions at Namepros to try to help folks understand various issues by posting in threads everyone can read. I don't have any personal interest in the topic of this thread, so if you want to post stuff I'll be happy to talk about it.

Obviously a registry has insider information regarding the demand of domain names. So when they bid on domains, they:

1) are using insider information to gain an advantage in the domain market
2) may be artificially inflating the perceived value of domains in their own TLD by running up auction prices

Those two things are at cross purposes.

If you are saying that they are using "insider information" in order to purchase and resell domains that are undervalued by the market, that's one thing.

But you can't say that and, at the same time, suggest they are overpaying for domain names that aren't worth those prices.

When you engage in "insider trading" in a stock or other security, you are exploiting private information that, if known, would cause the market to value that stock more highly (or you are shorting a stock that the market currently overvalues). But, it is a really weird form of "insider trading" to say, "They are using inside information in order to buy names that are overpriced and they know it."

I mean, who uses "insider information" that something is worth $1 in order to pay $10 for it, in an effort to try to get people to believe it is worth more than what you know it to be worth?

But, still, not an ICANN issue.

 

[DomainBanana]

Do you think the concerns I've reported

But, still, not an ICANN issue.

Do you see the issues I've reported as problematic? If so, which organization do you believe would be appropriate to prevent this kind of abuse?

Or are you perfectly fine with a domain registry using its privileged data to compete for expired domains on a large scale?

In my view, a registry using its privileged data to compete for domains in the open market undermines the fundamental principles of fairness, neutrality, and trust in the domain name ecosystem, which relies on transparency and equitable treatment to function effectively.