Network Solutions Sued For Domain-Name Policy

Network Solutions is being sued for its policy of reserving domain names, a policy the company said it put into place to protect customers from front-running.Front-running involves scammers tracking domain-name searches, then registering the names themselves with the intent of selling them to the original searchers for a steep price. To prevent that, Network Solutions began automatically reserving for four days any domain name that is the subject of a search on its site; customers can still purchase the name during that time, but at a higher price than what other registrars charge.

The policy first came under fire last month. Fast forward to this week, when a Florida man filed a lawsuit against Network Solutions after the domain name he searched for but didn't buy became unavailable elsewhere. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, alleges that Network Solutions "forced" millions of people to buy domain names from the company instead of from cheaper competitors, thereby creating a monopoly.Associated Press, VNUnet.com