Dot clash in domain game - The Australian Financial Review

James Hutchinson

The federal government has taken on some of the world's largest companies, including L'Oréal and three Australian organisations, over attempts to own and operate exclusive new internet domains.

This week it issued 129 warnings – the highest number of any government – to companies seeking to own global top-level domains, which would replace the standard .com or .org addresses with the likes of .coke or .book.

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy complained against L'Oréal's application for .beauty, as well as applications from Australian groups Tennis Australia, CPA Australia and Open Universities.

It said allowing domains on generic words such as .food could let a successful applicant maintain unreasonable monopolies on the new addresses.

Other domains such as .sucks – independently applied for by three companies – could force companies or individuals to buy web addresses for purely defensive ­purposes.

Critics of the recently released .xxx domain said companies would be forced to spend money on new website addresses to stop others from making crude implications.

The warnings mean applicants will have to negotiate with the Australian government to give other companies access to the domains. Applicants can withdraw their applications, receiving an 80 per cent refund on the $US185,000 fee.

A government spokesman said it was not objecting to the applications themselves and wanted to "ensure Australian consumers and businesses are protected".

The government's concerns could culminate in international oversight body ICANN denying an application next year.

"Without proper protections in place, the company given control of the domain .book would be able to unfairly exclude people and businesses from registering websites ending with .book," the spokesman said.

"This is clearly unfair, as well as raising competition and consumer protection concerns."

The government has complained against e-commerce giant Amazon's application for .book, although it is one of nine companies applying for the domain.

The spokesman said the government had contacted the three Australian applicants.

The move to own a slice of internet real estate is seen as a marketing opportunity for some of the world's largest brands but has also become a new internet "land grab", with companies trying to gain the rights to domains such as .navy, .airforce and .army. The Australian and US governments asked for immediate withdrawal of those applications.

An open application process earlier this year attracted 2000 domain applications, including from three of the big four Australian banks.

The government objections will be discussed by an advisory committee to ICANN in April next year.