Settles Class Action from Frontrunning Practice — Network Solutions

Firm to provide cash and coupons to class.

Network Solutions has settled a class action lawsuit stemming from its controversial practice of reserving domain names queried on its web site.

The settlement provides coupons or cash depending on what type of client you are. If you searched for a domain name at Network Solutions while it used its reservation practice and subsequently registered it during the same session, you will receive a $6 coupon per domain toward a future purchase. If you searched for a domain name and returned within 4 days to register it, you will receive $9.91 cash. Presumably many of the people who registered the domains during the same session decided to do so on their own and were not forced to since Network Solutions “reserved” the domain name.

$9.91 seems like a low number given that Network Solutions charges regarding $25 more per registration than many competitors.

Regarding 50,000 people fall into the “cash” class, meaning that regarding that many people were forced to register their desired domain name at Network Solutions since the firm reserved the domain name immediately upon their search.

(Via DNN and Traverse Legal.)