Why do Nominet charge £80 per domain?

[Ben Thomas]

I've never addressed this, or asked the question. It seems ridiculous, but having been a member of Nominet for nearly two years now, I have to ask the question. Why do Nominet charge £80 per domain to those who aren't members? That seems like extortion to me. It seems like, "Either pay us £600 and £100 per annum. or we will charge you £80 per domain + VAT". Surely, it would make more sense, for them to charge the registration fee (currently £3.90 exc. VAT) to registrars and accredited registrars and members. Maybe not self-managed tag holders, because they're not really into volume registrations.

I mean, where on planet Earth does Nominet get this £80 from? Some brief boardroom discussion? "How much should we charge the peasants who don't become a member of our little club?" ... "Uhmmmm... about £80? Yeah, £80 seems fair."

Does it Nominet? Does it?

 

[BG]

The simply answer to this Ben is...

Because they can and they love taking peoples money! And i mean they really, really love taking peoples money, haha!!

 

[Ben Thomas]

The simply answer to this Ben is...

Because they can and they love taking peoples money! And i mean they really, really love taking peoples money, haha!!

That sounds about right, Barry I guess they figure they make more from members' annual fees and new subscriptions than they do from registrations. But I think if they got rid of the £80 fee and brought the wholesale registration cost to registrars etc. without needing to be a member, there would perhaps be some growth in domain uptake. It does feel like we're all coerced into becoming members if we want to be registrars. Which is just silly. I mean, if we don't, who is going to charge their end users £80 per domain for fresh registrations? More to the point, what end-user would pay that!

Perhaps I'm being naive expecting Nominet to be fair, lol.

 

[bensd]

I always assumed they put such a large price tag on it to encourage people to become a member.

 

[webber]

That's what I also thought at first...
But a year on I've concluded I don't want to be a member, it's pointless.
Apart from the price of registering domains and access to DAC (which should be available to all registrars) there is no reason to become a Nominet member, but yet I am forced to be by their stupid pricing.
To become a registrar in other cctld you just pay a deposit

 

[Murray]

I would guess it's because they don't want to compete as a registrar being the registry

 

[webber]

Makes sense, but the same would be achieved by asking a large deposit

 

[Ben Thomas]

I would guess it's because they don't want to compete as a registrar being the registry

Well, that is a silly way to do it. no?

 

[Adam H]

Well, that is a silly way to do it. no?

I'd say its actually ethical and justified. Nothing puts me off more than using a supplier who also has their own retail store and therefore is the "authority" AND competition.

Pricing them selves out so the distributors don't get a monk on, but still offers a solution in circumstance its required.

 

[jmcc]

I would guess it's because they don't want to compete as a registrar being the registry

This seems to be a legacy thing with some ccTLD registries. Some of the ccTLD registries started out acting as both registry and registrar and the growing registrars business tended to get a bit upset about competing directly with the registry. Over the years, the registries have tried to get away from retail registrations by becoming a registrar of last resort with suitably high priced registration fees. Not sure if this is what happened with Nominet but it might explain the £80 registration fee.

Regards...jmcc

 

[webber]

I'm also active in the .ro namespace and the registry used to charge €60 per year to register directly with them, but in the last couple of years they switched to €12/year while they charge registrars just €6/year.
This to me seems to achieve the same thing.