NTIA 'Failed to Consider' Antitrust Implications of IANA Transition, Skeptical Group Says

in June (see 1606090067), said Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning in a statement Friday. ALG, a vocal IANA transition critic, filed a FOIA request in June for NTIA records on any legal or policy notice of the transition plans “concerning antitrust issues” that could occur post-transition. NTIA “found no records responsive” to ALG’s request, Chief Counsel Kathy Smith said in a letter released Friday. NTIA noted in a transition FAQ that its review of ICANN’s plans, which included input from the DOJ, “did not identify any significant competitive issues relating to the proposed transition.” U.S. competition laws would still apply to ICANN and its Public Technical Identifiers subsidiary’s administration of the IANA functions post-transition “to the same extent as those laws now apply to other private entities, and thus these laws can serve to discourage ICANN and its constituent groups from engaging in anticompetitive conduct that would harm Internet users,” NTIA said. The agency’s failure to consider antitrust issues in its analysis “is simply stunning,” Manning said. He said that President Bill Clinton’s administration explored the possible antitrust issues involved in an IANA transition in 1998, “yet somehow the politically blinded Obama Administration missed the obvious point that ICANN loses its anti-trust shield should the government relinquish control over the property to them. This, even as NTIA has in essence been preparing to create a global monopoly over the Internet’s domain name system.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and two other GOP lawmakers jointly urged DOJ’s Antitrust Division earlier this month to do a competition review of ICANN’s proposed extension of Verisign’s current .com registry agreement through 2024 before the transition (see 1608150052). Congress “has no choice but to deny” President Barack Obama’s “attempt to giveaway [sic] the Internet governance functions through any means necessary including filing suit over the Executive Branch’s abrogation of Congress’ Article One power of the purse,” Manning said. “NTIA was so busy figuring out how it would turn over the Internet domain name system, apparently nobody stopped to ask if it could legally create such a monopoly.” ALG was among 25 groups that jointly asked Congress to file suit against NTIA to enforce and extend an existing rider in the Department of Commerce's budget that prohibits the use of federal funding on the transition. An extension of the funding ban rider through FY 2017 would effectively delay the transition another year (see 1608110062). NTIA didn't comment.