Intercosmos Media Group Inc., a registrar of Internet domain names, has sued rival VerSign Inc., accusing it of sending deceptive domain expiration and renewal notices to Intercosmos customers.
The suit alleges that Mountain View, CA-based VeriSign sent “domain name expiration notices” on three occasions. The notices offered Intercosmos customers a chance to renew, and set artificial deadlines for reply, according to papers on file with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
The $29 renewal cost “dramatically exceeds the cost of a renewal through Intercosmos, and is unnecesary at this time,” the complaint continues.
The third wave of notices went out via e-mail around July 18, according to the complaint.
The campaign was facilitated by “unauthorized harvesting of customer data belonging to Intercosmos,” the papers add. In addition, the notices deceived customers into thinking that “Intercosmos can no longer function as the future registrar of their domain names,” the papers say.
In granting VeriSign a monopoly for the registry of domain names within th e.com, .net and .org domains, Congress sought “to separate the VeriSign Registry from the EverSign Registrar, which does not,” the complaint continues.
The suit, which asks for treble damages, also charges that VeriSign failed to release bulk WHOSIS information to Intercosmos as required by law, despite payment of “the requisite $10,000 payment.”
VeriSign spokesperon Mike Burk declined to comment on the case.
David Vinterella, an in-house attorney with Intercosmos, said the New Orleans-based firm hopes to settle with VeriSign “without too much court intervention.”
This is the fifth case involving the VeriSign renewal campaign, according to wire service reports. BulkRegister and GoDaddy have also filed suits, the reports state.
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