I am very disappointed to learn today that ICANN has made a secret deal with Verisign, to benefit both parties financially, to the detriment of internet users and in particular small businesses, worldwide.

Small businesses rely on being able to utilize the .com TLD as a trusted way for their customers to reach them online. ICANN's self-serving deal with Verisign means that retaining .com domains, will be approximately 70% more cost prohibitive over the next 10 years. This deal makes .com domains less accessible and more expensive for everybody. It is a bad deal for everyone except ICANN and Verisign.

This secret deal is contrary to ICANN's remit, which in part is to maintain, not reduce competition in the domain marketplace.

Please consider scrapping these planned changes.

Kind regards,

John Kitchen