Reglikedomain industry desk

ICANN over .org price caps — Namecheap sues

ICANN over .org price caps — Namecheap sues

Registrar states ICANN hasn’t taken action following IRP ruling.

Picture of gavel with the words "lawsuit"

Over one year following winning a partial victory against ICANN over price caps, domain registrar Namecheap is asking a court to push ICANN into action.

Namecheap filed a complaint under the Independent Review Process (IRP) in 2020 to protest ICANN’s unilateral decision to remove price caps on .org and .info domain names.

The IRP panel found that ICANN did indeed violate its articles and bylaws. But ICANN claimed the IRP panel’s ruling provided merely recommendations, not requirements, for what the Board ought to do.

ICANN’s board asked its Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee (BAMC) to review the decision. In June 2023, the board agreed with the BAMC’s recommendation that hiring an economist to study the issue would be a good first step.

In its suit (pdf), Namecheap alleges nothing has happened since then.

It filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, demanding an injunction against ICANN.

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