ICANN eliminates .org domain price caps despite lopsided opposition

Earlier in 2019, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) sought public comment on a new contract for the Public Interest Registry, the non-profit organization that administers the .org top-level domain. The results were stark; more than 3,200 individuals and organizations submitted comments to ICANN, and most of them focused on a proposal to remove a cap on the price customers could be charged for .org domains. The existing contract, signed in 2013, banned the Public Interest Registry from charging more than $8.25 per domain. It allowed annual price increases of no more than 10 percent. Registrars can add their own fees on top of this base amount, but competition among registrars helps keep those added fees down. Fewer than 0.07 percent of commenters thought it would be a good idea to remove the price cap on .org domains, while more than 98 percent opposed the change. But on June 30, as the old contract was about to expire, ICANN approved a new contract without a price cap. Why? ICANN is trying to standardize its contracts with domain registries (modifying .org to more closely match those for domain names like .pizza and .ninja). But critics say the .org domain is different. It has existed for longer than ICANN itself, and .org domains have been an important part of non-profits' identities for many years. Non-profit organizations have always assumed that they would be able to use their .org domains indefinitely while paying only nominal fees.