A federal appeals court today reinstated a lawsuit against Mountain View-based VeriSign Inc. that alleges the company violated antitrust laws through its grip on the .com and .net domain name registration system.
In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that an Internet industry trade group should be allowed to proceed to trial on claims that VeriSign has inflated the cost of domain names by engaging in predatory and monopolistic practices.The appeals court reversed an earlier ruling by San Jose U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte, who dismissed the lawsuit brought in 2005 by the Coalition for ICANN Transparency. The lawsuit alleged that VeriSign in 2004 coerced a "sweetheart deal" from ICANN, which coordinates the Internet’s domain name system, driving up the cost to register the popular .com and .net domain slots on the Web.
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-appeals-court-reinstates-antitrust-case-against-verisign-/2009/06/05/4214027.htm
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