The Enforcement of Competition Law Rules in the Internet Domain Name Market

Abstract

Competition law is a critical tool for managing and regulating markets to increase efficiency, welfare and economic freedom. Since it is desirable to improve the efficiency and well-being of consumers in any market, competition rules can be applied in all markets unless a particular market is excluded from the scope of these rules for a valid reason. Since the issues related to competition law and domain names in the Iranian legal system and their various legal dimensions are unknown, this paper explores how to enforce competition rules in the domain names market. The paper analyses since providing the domain name is an economic activity, the companies supplying this product and related services, i.e. ICANN and all registries and registrars, are considered enterprises and subject to competition regulations. Moreover, exempting this market from the application of competition regulations has no economic justification and logic. Also, committing some anticompetitive practices by firms operating in the domain name market is probable and conceivable. It suggests that as the sole authority to review anticompetitive practices in Iranian law, the Competition Council, may apply one or more of the sanctions of Article 61 of the Act of the execution of the General Policies of Article 44 of the Constitution (2007) to the infringing undertakings in the domain name market. This article provides an overview of competition law enforcement in the domain name market, using an analytical-descriptive method.

Keywords

• competition
• anticompetitive practices
• domain name
• monopoly
• icann
• registry
• registrar