A lawsuit has been filed against internet regulator Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and ICM Registry surrounding the way that .xxx domain names were allocated.
Adult company Digital Playground Inc and Manwin Licensing International SARL have bought a case alleging that the regulators have broken competition law by failing to take bids on the operation of the top-level domain case.
In March, ICANN awarded the right to create top-level domain names to ICM Registry LLC, which the plaintiffs claim abused its position by requiring pornography companies to buy up those addresses with close equivalents to their trademarks.
The suit alleges that monopolistic conduct, price gouging and unfair practices were used by the companies.
Stuart Lawley, chief executive of ICM, said, “We are certain the claims are baseless and will vigorously defend this matter.”
Earlier this month, the ICANN began accepting applications for .xxx domain names from schools working to ensure that their names are not associated with pornographic websites.