Contractual Claims Lead to Frictions Between ICANN and Vox Populi

Mutual accusations have recently been launched between ICANN and Vox Populi over the .SUCKS use (or misuse) of the domain regarding the prices the latter practises as being too high. Since there was no amiable solving of the issue, ICANN has resorted to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA) to mediate the conflict and determine whether Vox Populi has violated or not the terms of the agreement between the two.

In their defense, the Canadian enterprise claims they did nothing else than following the agreements they have with ICANN in the contract and it is their legal right to establish their own pricing regarding the services and products in their portfolio, according to the market’s needs. They go even further, saying that ICANN’s letters are defamatory and can prejudice the company’s image and if such actions continue, they reserve the right to settle things in court. They base their claims and possible future actions on the fact that ICANN seems to infringe their own policies and what is called “good faith”.

On the other side, ICANN says that Vox Populi’s actions can lead to ‘cybersquatting’ that might affect trademark owners, by making money out of them through high fees.

In the letter from Vox Populi, they say that they have no interest in escalating the conflict, they will continue enforcing the contract agreement with ICANN and they express the hope that such negative publicity will end soon.