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Verisign, ICANN Face Antitrust Lawsuit Over .Com Domain Pricing

By  |  September 6, 2026
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Verisign Inc. and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers have been sued in a proposed class action accusing them of maintaining an unlawful monopoly over the market for .com domain names and enabling consumers to be charged excessive registration fees.

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    The lawsuit was filed by California resident Jeff Kessler, who owns six .com domain names, according to Domain Name Wire, which reported on the case Sept. 4. Kessler alleges that agreements governing the .com registry have entrenched Verisign’s position as its sole operator and insulated the company from competitive pressure.

    Verisign, whose shares trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker VRSN, operates the registry infrastructure behind .com domains. ICANN, a nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating key elements of the internet’s naming system, contracts with Verisign to operate the registry.

    According to Domain Name Wire, the complaint traces the relationship between the two organizations over several decades and alleges that Verisign pressured ICANN into contractual arrangements favorable to the company. Those are allegations contained in the lawsuit and have not been established by a court.

    Kessler is seeking to represent a nationwide class consisting of individuals and businesses that have paid to renew .com domains since at least Sept. 4, 2022, Domain Name Wire reported. That proposed class is seeking injunctive relief, while a separate proposed California class is pursuing monetary damages and other remedies under state law.

    The case could put renewed scrutiny on the economics of one of the internet’s most important pieces of infrastructure. More than 160 million .com domains are active worldwide, according to the law firm representing Kessler.

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    At issue is the wholesale layer of the domain-name market. Registrars compete to sell domain names to customers, but Verisign operates the central .com registry. Registrars must therefore pay Verisign a wholesale fee for each .com registration or renewal, according to the allegations described by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

    The complaint alleges that Verisign’s wholesale price has climbed by more than 30% since 2021, from $7.85 to $10.26 per domain, even as the cost of providing registry services has declined elsewhere in the industry, according to Hagens Berman, the law firm representing the plaintiff. The firm said the lawsuit cites Verisign financial disclosures in estimating that operating .com domains costs the company about $3 per domain.

    Those figures form part of the plaintiffs’ argument that Verisign’s profitability reflects a lack of effective competition. The lawsuit alleges that the company controls the entire .com registry market and benefits from contractual renewal provisions that prevent the registry from being routinely subjected to competitive bidding, according to Hagens Berman.

    The plaintiffs also contend that Verisign has repeatedly raised prices when permitted under its agreements. Under the current arrangement, the wholesale price could reach about $13.44 by 2030, according to the law firm’s description of the complaint.

    The lawsuit seeks to halt conduct it describes as anticompetitive and to prevent enforcement of contractual provisions that allegedly constrain ICANN’s ability to regulate wholesale .com prices, according to Domain Name Wire.

    The litigation comes amid broader debate over the governance and pricing of .com domains. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said in 2024 that lower .com prices would serve the public interest, according to material cited by the plaintiffs’ lawyers. Members of Congress have also previously raised concerns about competition and pricing in the .com registry, Hagens Berman said.

    The lawsuit, Kessler v. VeriSign Inc. et al., was filed Sept. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and assigned case number 2:26-cv-09960, according to Hagens Berman.

    Source: Domain Name Wire