Raise domain name fees — ICANN to
Group plans to increase registry and registrar fees.
ICANN has formally disclosed that it plans to raise the fees it charges domain name registries and registrars, counting the “ICANN tax” that registrars typically pass along to domain registrants.
The non-profit published a lengthy whitepaper that buries the lede, so let me break it down in simpler terms:
- For registries, ICANN intends to increase the quarterly fixed fee from $6,250 to $6,450 and the per-domain transaction fee from $0.25 to $0.258. It intends to continue increasing these prices in line with inflation.
- For registrars, it intends to increase the per-domain transaction fee from $0.18 to $0.20 and the total variable fee that is divided amongst registrars from $3.42 million to $3.80 million.
On the registry side, ICANN has a contractual right to increase the prices.
For registrar increases, registrars representing 2/3rds of all registrar fees paid must approve.
ICANN considers the registrar fee changes a rollback of pricing. It gave a 10% discount on previous fees to incentivize registrars to adopt the 2009 Registrar Accreditation Agreement. That was obviously a long time ago.
Most registrars pass the per-domain fee on to clients as a separate line item, so this increase will be readily apparent to registrants.
