You are here: Home  FTC Actions FTC Action Summaries Internic.com

Defendants operated a Web site that allegedly misled consumers into thinking they were using the official domain name registration service "InterNIC," at www.internic.net. The bona fide InterNIC was operated by Network Solutions, which had an exclusive contract with the U.S. government to issue Internet domain names. Australia-based Internic Technology Pty Ltd and Peter Zmijewski allegedly operated a copy-cat Internet site at www.internic.com. As many as 13,000 consumers in 9 countries signed up for their domain names with the copy-cat site, paying $250 instead of the $100 normally charged for Internet registrations. The defendants allegedly forwarded $100 to Network Solutions and pocketed the difference.

On August 27, 1997, FTC staff issued an advisory opinion stating that the practices of Internic.com likely violated the FTC Act. The staff referred the case to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which filed charges in Federal Court in Australia on May 1, 1998, alleging deceptive and misleading conduct. The ACCC charged that consumers who used the copy-cat site were deceived into believing they were using the services provided by InterNIC.

In June 1999, the ACCC and the defendants reached a settlement that set up a compensation trust fund containing $A250,000 (approximately $161,000 U.S.) for consumer redress and barred the Australia-based company from using the internic name.

This page was last modified on July 22, 2007.

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