.com domain price could soar 70 percent by 2030

The price of a .com domain name may go up significantly over the next ten years as Verisign reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Justice to hike up prices. The price of a .com domain name registration has been frozen at $7.85 since 2012 but over the next decade the price may increase to $13.50. The number we're talking about here is the price charged to a registrar per registration, the actual price you pay to the registrar can be lower or higher.

The government agreement justifies the price increases by saying that new top-level domains (like .pizza and .camera) and “the use of social media” have made the domain name market “more dynamic.” It’s not strictly wrong about that, but .com still remains the assumed ending for domains, at least in the US.

As Engadget points out, the change also stems from the Trump administration’s desire to roll back anything remotely Obama related. In a 2018 press release about the updated agreement change, the Commerce Department’s telecom agency referred to the price freeze as “Obama-era price controls” and said it was repealing them in favor of “pricing flexibility.”

ICANN will issue a final report about the matter in March but the organization has no real power to change anything about the deal Verisign reached with the US government.

Via: The Verge