Prices for acquiring and renewing .COM domains may rise from this year onwards so I thought I might put a short article together on what is happening and how you can minimise impact on your domains.
The measure is likely to be put in place after amendments were proposed to the .COM Registry Agreement and according to the document ICANN and VeriSign were the only two parties that took part of negotiations.
Something similar has happened before with the removal of price caps for .org domains last year. The price cap had been in place since 1999 for .COM and .NET domains too.
How does it impact .com domains?
These amendments could mean that, within 10 years, .COM domains could cost around 70% more than the current wholesale price.
VeriSign will be able to increase domain prices up to 7% each year for three years with a two year freeze in between every three year period.
It is unsure yet how clear these costs could impact domain owners but “it is likely that most of these increases will be paid by domain name registrants”, Namecheap states in an article on the subject.
What can we do to mitigate these changes?
You could extend your .COM domains to up to 10 years before prices increase as the amendments will have a six month notice period before changes can be made.
Finally, you could leave a comment with your thoughts on the proposed changes on ICANN until the 14th of Feb 2020 or discuss the subject on social media (@ICANN on Twitter).
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