Stephane Van Gelder - Domain Tasting

Will registrars still be able to fight credit card fraud?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:14:23 +0100

ICANN recently announced a huge drop in AGP deletes following the introduction of anti-domain tasting measures, namely a transaction fee of 20 US cents on all domain name registrations that exceed a certain set of limits.

There's more to come, as full "AGP limits" are enforced as a policy next year.

The problem is that this basically does away with the AGP. So how are registrars going to protect themselves against credit card fraud, which was the reason for having the AGP in the first place?

ICANN has opened a comment period on the AGP limits policy and the Registrar Constituency has published a position paper on the subject. We're asking for more time to gauge the impact of the current measures before the full AGP limits are enforced.

Success for ICANN's anti-domain tasting policy

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:18:19 +0100

ICANN figures comparing the number of AGP deletes for the major gTLDs in June and July 2008 show a marked decrease in such deletes after the new AGP policy was introduced in June.

The policy is a stop-gap measure before full AGP limits are implemented. In short, the same monthly limits of 50 names or 10% of the overall registration volumes for a given registrar are enforced. But if registrars go over these limits, they only pay the 20 cent (US) ICANN fee per name. Once the full AGP limits are implemented, they will not be able to get any refund at all, i.e. they will not get the ICANN fee or the domain name registration fee back.

Curbing AGP deletes was ICANN's answer to the practice of "domain tasting" which had become rampant. Using the 5-day Add Grace Period which allows registrars to claim a full refund for a newly-registered names, "tasters" registered massive amounts of domain names and released them before the 5-day AGP was over. Only the names which proved valuable (i.e. provided good pay-per-click returns when pointed to a parking page) were kept. As a result, a huge number of names had been "tasted", or tried, at no cost.

Domain tasting had a negative impact on the domain market by eroding consumer confidence in the system. Those who wanted to register names that were tasted and then let go, or those that saw their trademarks usurped during a tasting campaign… all were adversely impacted by domain tasting.

ICANN's answer was to severely limit the number of AGP deletes that a registrar can request in a given month. The new policy does seem to work, with an overall drop in the number of AGP deletes of close to 85% from June to July. .COM saw a similar percentage drop, while .NET's was actually over 85%.

Remarkable numbers really, which seem to show that the new policy is the right one to fight domain tasting.

Domain tasting to end on March 1st?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:44:56 +0100

ICANN has released a draft plan for implementing its Add Grace Period (AGP) limits policy.

The policy is designed to end domain tasting. Registrars will no longer be able to claim refunds on domains less than 5 days old if the claim is for 50 domains or more than 10% of the registrar's monthly registration volume, whichever is the highest.

The draft implementation plan lists the AGP limits start-date as March 1, 2009.

As the AGP's reason for being in the first place was to enable registrars to deal with payment defaults, and not as a means of gaming the domain name registration system through domain tasting, ICANN has chosen not to do away with it altogether. Registrars can claim exemption from the AGP limits provided they are able to justify them. Exemption is only granted for the request made. There is no blanket exemption possibility which would in effect allow a registrar to "opt-out" of AGP limits.

Will this work, i.e. will it make domain tasting a thing of the past? ICANN will monitor the new policy for two years and then report on its effectiveness to the GNSO. Changes to the policy may at that point be considered.

Continue reading "Domain tasting to end on March 1st?"

BIZ and INFO take aim at Domain Tasting

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:48:25 +0100

A the moment, it seems not a day goes by without a new Domain-Tasting-killer scheme appearing. This time it's .BIZ registry Neustar and .INFO registry Afilias taking aim at everybody's current fave villain.

Accredited ICANN registrars were told this week that both registries have submitted what is called a "funnel request" in Icanneese jargon: the registry submits an official request to change part of its contract with ICANN. In this case, Neustar and Afilias have both made the same request to modify the Add Grace Period.

They propose to introduce a rate limit for the number of AGP deletions – that's names deleted within 5 days of their registration – a registrar could do for free. "This limit would be determined each month, with a maximum of 50 per month or 10% of that registrar's net new monthly domain name registrations, whichever is greater," as its written in the proposal Neustar and Afilias sent to ICANN.

Continue reading "BIZ and INFO take aim at Domain Tasting"