The Biden administration has the opportunity to address the exorbitant profit margins of the most profitable company in America, VeriSign, which controls the registration system for .com domain names. Despite the low cost of managing the database, VeriSign continues to increase fees annually, resulting in staggering profit margins. In 2023, the company reported an operating income before taxes of 65.4 percent of its revenue, a significant rise from the previous year.

Advocacy groups, including the American Economic Liberties Project and Demand Progress Education Fund, are urging governmental agencies to intervene and curb VeriSign’s monopoly-driven price hikes. The company’s exclusive control over .com registrations has allowed it to raise prices without justification, leading to a 70 percent increase in fees for website owners while the company’s operational costs have decreased.

VeriSign’s monopoly, granted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has been regulated as a public utility in the past. However, a 2018 agreement permitted VeriSign to raise prices by 7 percent annually for four out of six years, resulting in a current registration fee of $10.26 per year, up from $6 in the early 2000s.

The call to action from advocacy groups highlights the need to reevaluate VeriSign’s pricing practices and prevent further unjustified increases in registration fees. With the Biden administration in a position to address this issue, the opportunity to reform the monopoly-driven profit model of VeriSign is on the horizon.