Verisign’s 2006 contract gave it the right to increase .com prices 7% in 4 out of the 6 years of its contract. It agreed to a similar deal with ICANN in 2012, only to have the U.S. Department of Justice step in and say that the new six-year contract shouldn’t have price increases. That fixed the wholesale price of .com domain names at $7.85 per year.
Read MoreBidzos pointed out that the U.S. Government has found .com to have “market power”, and this has led to the price restrictions. The release of lots of new TLDs at higher prices are data points for people to think about going forward, but Bidzos reiterated that “it’s too early to say what will happen in 2018...”
