“ICANN created a monopoly and awarded Verisign perpetuity to this monopoly through a process called regulatory capture. Verisign operates this monopoly over all .COM domain names, and ICANN allows Verisign to continue to run the monopoly without contest. In return for ICANN’s allowance of this monopoly, Verisign agrees to pay ICANN tens of millions of dollars a year. ICANN has a financial benefit in allowing this monopoly to exist, even though many companies have stated they can provide the same operations that Verisign provides for a far lower cost. ICANN has proven to act against public interest and award this no-bid contract with its own financial incentives first. In fact, the contract to operate the .COM domain name extension has not been put to public tender since the year 2005 . ICANN turns a blind eye to being responsible for creating this monopoly and allowing Verisign to run this monopoly without any contest at the cost of American companies every year. This sweetheart detail between ICANN and Verisign is notorious in the domain name industry and goes against the premise of the Internet being open and free.”
Comments Regarding NTIA June 5, 2018 Inquiry “ International Internet Policy Priorities ”