[gnso-vi-feb10] Tierney letter to Strickland, via Dengate-Thrush

[ebw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Colleagues,

I'll keep this short. The DoJ has responded to the DoC's letter on
competition policy issues arising from ICANN's removal of all cross
ownership restrictions on contracted parties.

The DoJ guidance is first, that removing cross ownership restrictions
on the CNOBI set of registries should be recinded, as this is likely
to result in higher prices, with .name and .pro ignored, though both
are price-capped, and second, that .aero, .coop, .museum, ... the sTLDs,
should presumptively be allowed to exercise cross ownership, absent
market power.

I'm very pleased with this outcome.

Eric