RE: [gnso-vi-feb10] Single Registrant TLDs

["Neuman, Jeff" <Jeff.Neuman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Avri,

With respect to this point:  

"For example, have there been cases where a registry lowered its fees, and the 
regisrar did not in turn lower theirs to the consumer but absorbd the profit?"

The answer is YES.  Registries have lowered fees and registrars have not passed 
those lowering of fees through to consumers.  See 
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/switzer-to-twomey-23nov08.pdf.  In early 
2008, Neustar intentionally decided not to raise its fees to registrars when 
most of the other registries raised their rates.  Despite this, every registrar 
not only raised the rates of the other TLDs (that increased their wholesale 
rates), but also raised the rates for .biz (despite the fact that we did not 
raise ours).



Jeffrey J. Neuman 
Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Law & Policy


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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Avri Doria
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 8:49 AM
To: Gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [gnso-vi-feb10] Single Registrant TLDs



On 9 Apr 2010, at 08:17, Volker Greimann - Key-Systems GmbH wrote:

> Allowing all nGTLD applicants to bypass the registrar system would 
> effectively lead us back to the domain business we had a decade ago, which is 
> IMHO definitely not in the interest of the consumer. 


Hi,

Humility* aside, please explain why this is.  I would like to understand how 
this has helped consumers and how that benefit has been measured.

I have heard different theories about whether the current modality has helped 
consumers or whether it was even necessary - so leaving aside for the moment 
the subject of whether it helps or hinders innovation and creativity, please 
show evidence for the ways in which having separate Registrars has benefited 
consumers.  

For example, have there been cases where a registry lowered its fees, and the 
regisrar did not in turn lower theirs to the consumer but absorbd the profit?
I also am not sure I understand how any middleman who ads to the price, 
benefits users unless they are offering some value add service.  So what 
service have the registrars aded that was not doable by the Registries, 
especially now that registries have effectively split into registry service 
providers (RSP) and registry owners (RO) and we have full service resellers.

I really do not care too much about how the mountains of profit gained from 
these consumers are split between the Registry Service Providers, Registry 
owners, Registrars and Resellers - what I care about, in this instance, is 
showing why having the Registrars, with the add on costs to the consumer in 
their role as middlemen, has been a protector and a benefit to the consumer.

Again, I expect you can show this quite clearly and I expect that at the end of 
the explanation we will most all accept the importance of having registrars, I 
just think it would be helpful to have it explained.

a.


* the humility in question is the H in IMHO, for those who may not know the 
acronym: IMHO, In My Humble Opinion,