RE: [gnso-consumercci-dt] CCI: European Commission requests data on competition -- should we include these measures in CCI advice?

[Jonathan Zuck <jzuck@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Indeed.
Certainly "more is more" when it comes to data but we should be cautious about 
arbitrary "criteria" for competition. As we've discussed growth might be more 
important than market share, for example.

Jonathan


From: owner-gnso-consumercci-dt@xxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:owner-gnso-consumercci-dt@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Olivier MJ 
Crepin-Leblond
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 5:49 AM
To: Tobias Mahler
Cc: gnso-consumercci-dt@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [gnso-consumercci-dt] CCI: European Commission requests data on 
competition -- should we include these measures in CCI advice?

Hello Tobias,

thank you for the summary.

As a note, some of these figures are already collected by Verisign's very 
useful and interesting Domain Name Industry Brief, which I highly recommend 
reading:
http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/why-verisign/research-trends/domain-name-industry-brief/index.xhtml

I am sorry not to have pointed you all to this earlier, but it just didn't 
click in my mind & I figured that members of this group might have already been 
reading this regularly.

Warmest regards,

Olivier


On 06/02/2012 15:50, Tobias Mahler wrote :
Dear all,

As mentioned in the last CCI call, the European Commission recently sent a 
letter to ICANN requesting specific information about competition in the domain 
name market. Although this request primarily focuses on vertical integration 
issues, the proposed measures may also, in my opinion, be used to assess 
competition more generally in the context of new gTLDs. The EC asks for "recent 
figures on competition", based on measures described as follows:

"(1) recent figures on competition at registry and registrar level, in 
particular
    (i) the total number of currently active registries and registrars 
accredited by ICANN,
    (ii) the total number of domain name registrations up to now,
    (iii) the distribution of domain name registrations by gTLD in terms of 
numbers and percentages, and
    (iv) the share of the twenty largest registrars of the total number of 
domain name registrations (see paragraphs 14 and 15 of our non-paper);"

See the letter: 
http://news.dot-nxt.com/sites/news.dot-nxt.com/files/de-graaf-mccallum-to-beckstrom-crocker-19jan12-en.pdf

Comparison with our criteria
-------------------------------------------
We already cover (i) above, but we have so far not directly included (ii-iii) . 
The latter can presumably be used to calculate market share, in order to assess 
whether there are dominant actors (rule of thumb >40 % market share).


Should market share of gTLD registries be included in CCI advice?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Market share is often used as indicator of effective competition. If we include 
these measures now, we may pre-empt possible future criticism from competition 
authorities (through the GAC).

I am aware of the possibility that the new gTLD program might not be able to 
significantly alter the existing market share (and potential dominance) of some 
market actors. However, I think we should distinguish clearly between our 
proposed measures and the realistic 3-year targets. Thus, in my view it would 
be best to include market share, but to be very realistic with respect to what 
can be achieved by the new gTLD program in a 3-years time frame.

Best regards,

Tobias

--
Tobias Mahler, PhD
Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law (NRCCL)
Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo
http://folk.uio.no/tobiasm/
Phone (office) +47 2285 0087





--

Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD

http://www.gih.com/ocl.html