Justice closes investigation on Verisign running .web — Department of
Verisign believes ICANN will now sign the .web contract with Nu Dot Co, and then transfer the domain to Verisign.
Verisign has disclosed that the antitrust investigation into the firm’s plans to run the .web domain name has been closed, apparently without taking action. In an SEC filing, the firm stated:
As the Firm previously disclosed, on January 18, 2017, the Firm received a Civil Investigative Demand from the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) requesting certain material related to the Firm becoming the registry operator for the .web gTLD. On January 9, 2018, the DOJ notified the Firm that this investigation was closed. Verisign previously disclosed on August 1, 2016, that it had provided funds for Nu Dot Co’s successful bid for the .web gTLD and the Firm anticipates that Nu Dot Co will now seek to execute the .web Registry Agreement with ICANN and thereafter assign it to Verisign upon consent from ICANN.
Verisign backed Nu Do Co’s winning $135 million bid for .web. Other applicants for .web believe that ICANN incorrectly overlooked changes at Nu Dot Co and asked for the auction to be set aside. Runner-up Afilias asked ICANN to honor its second-place bid while Donuts wanted the result tossed with the hopes of having a private auction in which the losers split the proceeds.
Concurrently, the U.S. government looked into antitrust issues with the .com operator also running .web. It’s possible they were looking into if the firm’s bid for .web was merely a way to quash the domain, which many fresh TLD operators think could be the best fresh TLD. It could have also looked into if owning .com and .web would allow Verisign to dominate the market (more than it by now does with .com).
Despite the U.S. government’s clearance, there’s still a dark cloud over .web. Donuts sued ICANN and the case was thrown out but Donuts appealed. The appeals court is right now considering the matter.
