A draft proposal between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and VeriSign, Inc. that would give VeriSign exclusive control over the .com domain, is being vigorously opposed by a group of notable domain registrars led by 1&1 Internet, who claim the plan harms competition within the Internet industry and could negatively impact end-users worldwide.

1&1, along with almost all major domain registrars, has expressed disapproval at the content of the proposed agreement, which, among other things, would allow VeriSign to arbitrarily increase domain fees up to 7% per year, and the manner in which it was drafted. Additionally, the registrars' concern is that VeriSign can implement the price hikes without justification and web hosts and registrars would be forced to pass on the fee increases to individual domain registrants.

"The current draft of the agreement practically assigns .com to VeriSign forever," said 1&1's Domain Expert, Eric Schaetzlein. "This contradicts ICANN's core mission to promote competition in the Internet industry, which was established in its own by-laws and in the Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Commerce."

Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of Directi, a domain registrar, also voiced his concerns saying that, "ICANN is sort of acting more like a private business, they've demonstrated that they don't specifically care about the community that much."

In addition to this, a lawsuit brought by The World Association of Domain Name Developers, Inc. (WADND) on behalf of its members around the world, alleges that ICANN and Verisign have engaged in antitrust activities, including conspiracy, monopolization, illegal price fixing and monopolizing '.com' and '.net' domain name markets. The suit alleges that the two are on the verge of entering "an unlawful agreement that gives VeriSign a permanent monopoly over the all '.com' and '.net' Internet domain name registrations."