Brands ask for cheaper ICANN fees
The group representing dot-brand gTLD registries has asked ICANN to relieve its members of millions of dollars of annual fees.
The Brand Registry Group has written to ICANN to complain that the current $25,000 a year fixed registry fee is too high, given that most dot-brands have next to no domains in their zones and pretty much no abuse.
A dot-brand is a gTLD matching a trademark in which only the brand holder may register domains. Most are unused, and those that are used don’t face many of the contractual compliance-related issues as regular gTLDs.
The BRG wants its members’ fees reduced to $5,000 a year, when the registry has fewer than 5,000 names and basically no abuse.
The group notes that 20-year-old gTLDs such as .museum, .coop, and .aero have a base fixed fee of just $500.
Given that there are about 400 contracted dot-brands, it’s basically asking ICANN to throw away about $8 million of annual revenue, paid for by some of the largest and wealthiest multinationals out there.
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