An Internet domain name registration business has drawn Australian Competition and Consumer Commission action for alleged misleading conduct. In a statement of claim filed in Sydney today the ACCC alleges Internic Technology Pty Ltd and Peter Zmijewski are misleading consumers by using an almost identical domain name as the exclusive registrar of second level domain names in the .com, .net, .org, .gov, .edu top level Internet domains (the InterNIC) and by operating a website at http://www.internic.com.
The InterNIC is a facility operated by Network Solutions Inc, on contract with the United States government, and can be found at http://www.internic.net.
The ACCC alleges that: consumers looking for the InterNIC often enter "internic" or "internic.com" into their web browsers and end up at the site operated the respondents where the respondent sells brokers domain name registration services; the use of the name "internic.com" is likely to create the false impression that the respondent's business is, or is affiliated with, the InterNIC; consumers went to the respondent's website to register a domain name directly with InterNIC; and consumers have used the respondents services on believing they were using services provided by InterNIC as a result of the respondent's misleading and deceptive conduct.
The fee charged by the respondents was between $US220 and $US250. The fee charged by InterNIC has ranged between $US70 and $US100. The ACCC believes the respondents have registered more than 12,000 domain names in the past 12 to 18 months.
These domain names have been registered to consumers from all over the world including Australia, the US, Canada, France, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany. The matter was raised with the ACCC by the United States Federal Trade Commission, which had received numerous complaints from consumers in the US, because Internic Software and Mr Zmijewski both reside in Australia.
In the past couple of days the respondents have apparently altered their website but the ACCC does not believe these changes satisfactorily deal with the alleged conduct. The ACCC is seeking Federal Court orders including: various declarations that the conduct is misleading and deceptive; injunctions preventing the operators from continuing to operate a business using the name Internic; refunds to consumers of that part of the amount collected by the respondents not passed on to the InterNIC; and the electronic publication of information notices.