Domain Name Firms Sue VeriSign, ICANN

Companies that sell and broker Internet domain names have filed two lawsuits against VeriSign Inc. and its oversight agency, accusing them of price-fixing and other anti-competitive practices.

The federal antitrust lawsuits are primarily over a proposed extension to a contract VeriSign has with the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers to run the main database for the “.com” suffix, the most popular one online.

That renewal, in turn, was part of an accord reached in a long-standing antitrust dispute between VeriSign and the quasi-governmental Internet oversight agency.

The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose.

Under the proposed deal, VeriSign could raise prices for “.com” names by 7% a year beginning in 2007 from the current $6 a name. The deal also would double a separate per-name fee to 50 cents by July 2007.