Hagens Berman has filed a class-action lawsuit against Verisign Inc. and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for allegedly maintaining an illegal monopoly over .com domain names — the most widely used domain name extension, with over 160 million active registrations worldwide. Verisign is the sole operator of the .com registry, the authoritative database that makes every .com website and email address work. There is no alternative supplier. Consumers have no choice but to pay Verisign's price — no exceptions.

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST VERISIGN AND ICANN

The lawsuit alleges that Verisign’s prices are the result of a contract between it and ICANN that entitles Verisign to a permanent monopoly over the .com registry, and that ICANN, the organization originally intended to promote competition for .com, now shares in Verisign’s monopoly profits. Since 2021, Verisign’s price has risen more than 30%, from $7.85 to $10.26 per domain, even as the actual cost of providing registry services has fallen in the industry. Verisign’s financial filings indicate it costs Verisign approximately $3 per domain to operate .com domains, and comparable registries around the world charge an average of between $5 and $6. Verisign charges roughly double that amount, generating operating margins of more than 67% — higher than Apple, Microsoft or Alphabet, as cited in the lawsuit. In 2025 alone, Verisign returned $1 billion to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends, which attorneys allege is funded not by innovation, but by fees extracted from a captive customer base.

ANTITRUST CLAIMS

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has already recognized that similar antitrust claims against Verisign and ICANN over the .com registry are legally viable. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has expressly stated that “a reduction in .com prices would be in the best interest of the public." And bipartisan members of Congress have called for an antitrust investigation, warning that Verisign's "monopolistic elements and excessive domain name price increases stifle the ability of potential .com registrants to conduct business online." Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jerrold Nadler have separately warned that “Verisign is ripping off the owners of 150 million .com websites by charging over $10 annually for each .com registration, making over $1 billion with its predatory pricing scheme that the Company then uses to pad its shareholders’ pockets.”

WHO IS AFFECTED?

You may be affected if you:

Registered or renewed a .com domain name since 2022
Are a small business owner, nonprofit, or individual who maintains a .com website or email address
Paid to register a .com domain name through any registrar, including GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, Google Domains/Squarespace, Network Solutions, Porkbun or any other provider

Every .com registrant pays Verisign's fee. It is embedded in every transaction, at every registrar, without exception. If you registered a .com domain name for personal or business use since 2022, contact us today.

HOW THE ALLEGED .COM MONOPOLY WORKS

Every .com domain registration or renewal passes through a two-tier system. Verisign operates the registry, or the wholesale layer, and thousands of registrars (companies like GoDaddy, Namecheap and Cloudflare) compete at the retail level to sell domains to consumers, the lawsuit states. But every registrar must pay Verisign the same non-negotiable wholesale fee for every .com domain registered, according to the filing. That fee is embedded in the price consumers pay, regardless of which registrar is used.

There is no other supplier. Verisign has a 100% share of the .com registry market and a contractual right to keep it — indefinitely — through a "presumptive right of renewal" that forecloses competitive bidding, according to the lawsuit.

WHY PRICES KEEP RISING

Verisign obtained its alleged permanent monopoly through a years-long campaign of coercion against ICANN — the private nonprofit that oversees the domain name system — the lawsuit states. Attorneys allege that through vexatious litigation, attacks on ICANN's credibility, financial threats and intimidation of ICANN, Verisign dismantled the competitive safeguards that originally governed the .com registry. It eliminated competitive bidding, obtained perpetual renewal rights, and then leveraged that entrenched position to extract ever-higher prices, according to the lawsuit.

Since 2006, Verisign has raised prices to the maximum permitted amount in every single year it has been allowed to, and ICANN has continued to renew Verisign’s contract — receiving increased payments with its renewals. Under the current agreement, prices are projected to reach approximately $13.44 by 2030.

Meanwhile, real-world data shows registry costs are moving sharply in the opposite direction. Public Interest Registry, the nonprofit that operates .org, achieved a 70% reduction in backend registry costs over the past decade — through competitive bidding. While those costs fell more than 70%, Verisign raised its prices more than 30%. Attorneys say this divergence is the signature of a monopoly unchecked by competition.

HOW CAN A CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT HELP?

A class-action lawsuit allows the millions of individuals and businesses who pay Verisign's inflated fees to collectively seek accountability. A successful action could result in damages, a rollback of supra-competitive pricing, and an order requiring competitive bidding for the .com registry — the same mechanism that has driven costs down for every other major top-level domain.

TOP CONSUMER RIGHTS LAW FIRM

Hagens Berman is one of the most prominent plaintiffs’ litigation law firms in the U.S. and has achieved total settlements valued at more than $345 billion for classes and clients in lawsuits across its practice areas. The firm successfully pursued antitrust claims against Apple, securing a settlement valued at $568 million on behalf of e-book purchasers and a settlement valued at $100 million on behalf of iOS app developers. If you have a claim, it will be handled by attorneys with deep experience taking on the technology industry in antitrust litigation.

NO COST TO YOU

In no case will any class member ever be asked to pay any out-of-pocket sum. In the event Hagens Berman or any other firm obtains a settlement that provides benefits to class members, the court will decide a reasonable fee to be awarded to the legal team for the class.