To whom it may concern,

I am very surprised to know that a private entity has monopoly over .com pricing. I am also very surprised to hear the reasoning provided: “in line with policy priorities of the Trump Administration.”. I am assuming this is a poorly phrased or misquoted statement, because the department should prioritise public/national interest above all else.

Of course, the final domain pricing is not currently regulated. This is not ideal, but it was not a big deal until now. This is about to change. The department needs to have a plan to mitigate the final pricing of domains so that this proposed price hike does not affect the public and small business owners. Otherwise, I am afraid this will hurt small businesses. Many small businesses might have no choice but to resort to foreign alternatives. They will have to migrate to new domains, a process that will almost certainly confuse and mislead customers as well.

I hope the department has done the necessary auditing and will take immediate steps to regulate the final pricing. I chose .com as my domain because I trusted the US system. I hope I did not misplace my trust.

Yours faithfully,

S. Banerjee