Reconsideration Request 02-2 Received: 1 February 2002

Subject: reconsideration request
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 18:08:31 -0500
From: admin@consumer.net (admin)
To: <reconsider@icann.org>
CC: <denab@verisign.com>, <halloran@icann.org>, "'Rabbino, Stacey'" <srabbino@verisign.com>, "'John Berryhill Ph.D. J.D.'" <john@johnberryhill.com>, <psbar@hanson-molloy.com>, "'Bret Fausett'" <baf@fausett.com>, <froomkin@law.tm>, "'Beckwith, Bruce'" <bbeckwith@verisign.com>, "'Ross Wm. Rader'" <ross@tucows.com>, "'Gomes, Chuck'" <cgomes@verisign.com>, "'Cochetti, Roger'" <RCochetti@verisign.com>, <mclaughlin@pobox.com>, <mclaughlin@icann.org>

I am seeking a reconsideration request for the actions, or more appropriately, inaction by a member of the ICANN staff Dam Halloran as well as general ICANN policy for handling complaints from individual domain registrants. I am a reseller and provide domain registration services at http://TheNIC.com. The actions (and inactions) by the ICANN have served to allowed both the VeriSign Registrar and Registry (formerly Network Solutions) to disrupt competitors of the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) including my business as well as domain holders.

The issue concerning Dan Halloran is his refusal to enforce the registrar transfer procedures described in the letter from Louis Touton to Ms. Russo of the VeriSign Registry:

http://www.icann.org/correspondence/touton-to-russo-27aug01.htm

Mr. Halloran has received hundreds of complaints and has verified that the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) has not followed the procedures outlined in the ICANN agreement and the letter above. Specifically, the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) denies all transfers if they, as the losing registrar, claim they did not receive a properly processed authorization request.

This placed a tremendous burden on registrars competing with the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) since the administrative work was substantially more in these cases. While this situation has lasted many months, in the past the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) has provided a contact of someone who processed requests manually. Now the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) has provided a new contact for such manual submissions (denab@verisign.com). However, requests to process the transfers manually are not completed and e-mail sent to this address is not answered. According to a telephone conversation with Christine Russo, Manager, Contracts and Compliance VeriSign Global Registry Services, she stated she was unable to take any action against the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) and could probably not find out who at the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) who could manually transfer locked domains that should have been transferred to another registrar under the rules.

The second issue concerns the overall ICANN policy at

http://www.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi

The policy states:

"If you cannot resolve your complaint with the registrar, you should address it to private-sector agencies involved in addressing customer complaints or governmental consumer-protection agencies. (The appropriate agency will vary depending on the jurisdiction of the registrar and the customer.) .... ICANN does not resolve individual customer complaints. ICANN is a technical-coordination body. Its primary objective is to coordinate the Internet's system of assigned names and numbers to promote stable operation."

Diverting domain name consumers to "other" private or governmental agencies is not practicable or reasonable in most cases. The majority of complaints involve issues that solely relate to domain names and few, if any, other agencies or organization would be able to help with, or even understand, the issues involved. Further, if action is to be taken, it is ICANN or the VeriSign registry who would take such action in almost all cases. Since the majority of complaints involve the VeriSign Registrar if is not reasonable to expect the VeriSign registry to take any action against their sister company. Therefore, ICANN is the only possible agency or organization who can assist with these matters and is the only party who can enforce the contracts ICANN has with the registrars and registry. This task falls well within "coordinate[ion] the Internet's system of assigned names and numbers to promote stable operation."

I am requesting that ICANN require the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) to comply with the register transfers rules. I am also requesting ICANN to provide reasonable information to domain registrations who wish to file a complaint and set up system within ICANN to process and resolve such complaints as well as taking enforcement action when the complaints involve enforcing the ICANN contracts.

Russ Smith
http://consumer.net

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