Today the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it was starting proceedings against domain name reseller Internet Name Protection Pty Ltd, which trades as the Internet Name Group, and its director Mark Spektor.
The ACCC has alleged that Internet Name Group engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in the marketing of domain name services.
The ACCC is seeking to have Internet Name Group restrained from continuing to represent that it's necessary for the company to have access to a registry key before a registration of a domain name can be renewed.
The orders being sought by the ACCC in the Federal Court include declarations that the conduct of Internet Name Protection breached relevant provisions of the Trade Practices Act; injunctions restraining Internet Name Protection from engaging in the same conduct in the future; corrective advertising; and an order for Internet Name Protection and Spektor to undertake a trade practices compliance program.
The ACCC is seeking both interlocutory and permanent injunctions, with the claim for the former scheduled to be heard in the Federal Court in Melbourne on April 26.
When contacted by ZDNet Australia for this story, Chris Disspain, CEO at .au Domain Administration (auDA), said it had noted with interest the ACCC's action against Internet Name Group.
Disspain said Internet Name Group was a provisionally accredited under its new scheme, and also a Melbourne-IT licensed reseller.
-auDA is in the process of obtaining full court documentation [from the Federal Court]," Disspain said. -To enable it to consider its position with regards to ING [Internet Name Group] and will make an announcement regarding what action it intends to take early next week."
When contacted, a spokesperson from registrar Melbourne IT said it could not comment on individual cases. However, the spokesperson did add that late last year it had cooperated with the ACCC on a number of resellers Melbourne IT felt were acting inappropriately, or in breach of the Trade Practices Act.
Larry Bloch, CEO at domain name and Web hosting company NetRegistry, said NetRegistry had been involved in trying to stamp out misleading practices in the industry.
Bloch said a case, such as the one the ACCC was bringing against Internet Name Group, would serve to put the spotlight on what was, and wasn't, considered unethical practices in the industry. It serves to educate, clarify and correct confusion, Bloch said.
A spokesperson from Internet Name Group was unavailable for comment at the time this story went to press.
I've been following this story with interest. Just another example of big brother looking after its mates at the expense of some clever marketing guys. Lets look at it as if a conspiracy- what if AUDA (the australian domain authority) CEO Chris Dispane asked anyone that contacted AUDA with queries to contact ACCC in relation to ING, but the question is "why would he do this" who would benefit? well as from the middle of this year Melbourne IT, the administrator will be no longer the sole administrator and have to compete on service, they would still be the administrator if there service was any good. So why on earth would AUDA try to discredit ING to ACCC, ask one simple question, WHO FINANCED AND STARTED UP AUDA? ANSWER: Melbourne IT of course. GET THE PICTURE
The plot thickens.