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.
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.
