FAS will check RU-CENTER registrar due to the growth of tariffs

From March 1, 2016, the largest Russian registrar RU-CENTER announced a sharp increase in tariffs for domain renewals. The extension of the domains .RU and . has grown to 900 rubles.



The registrar canceled the partner rates, and instead launched a club program - a discount system, “allowing regular customers with a wide range of services to save on their purchase and renewal.” To join the club program, the client is invited to pay a membership fee of 990 rubles to 44,900 rubles a year.



Following the leader, some other registrars began to increase tariffs, although some did the opposite - reduced tariffs in order to attract “refugees” from RU-CENTER.

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It is clear that the increase in prices is most likely caused by the growth of the dollar exchange rate - such anti-crisis measures. But the commercial director of RU-CENTER stated that the reason was different. The company allegedly "seeks to make work with partners more transparent."



“We see that the launch of the club program provoked a small amount of negative feedback, and this is understandable: when prices for services rise, even slightly, someone will be unhappy,” said Anton Terekhov, commercial director of RU-CENTER, to Roem.ru. “But our club program is based on understandable pricing, focused on partners with whom we successfully cooperate, while negative feedback about it is left to the players of the domain market, who are now forced to build their activities as transparently as possible.”



Such verbiage of RU-CENTER representatives caused outrage among the domainers. “Anton Terekhov’s comment is just for a laugh. As before, I was not transparent in the previous 10−15 years, and now on the same day with the introduction of club tax I became transparent for my clients? Or was I not transparent to you? ” Says one of them. “Usually, price increases are justified by increased costs, additional services, at worst, with a dollar, but in order to blink my eye to explain this with“ transparency ”- this is the first time,” agrees web developer Sergio Mekeda.



Strange actions of the registrar attracted the attention of legislators. Yesterday, Senator Anton Belyakov appealed to the Federal Antimonopoly Service with a request to verify the activities of the company RU-CENTER.



“RU-CENTER, taking advantage of the dominant position in the market, actually put its customers in inebrivial conditions ... It remains unclear from what considerations the company’s management proceeded when it decided to raise the prices of its services several times,” the senator said.



Recall that in 2011 the FAS convicted RU-CENTER in collusion with five companies with the aim of dividing the domain registration market in the .RF zone. The Supreme Arbitration Court acknowledged the unfair competition from RU-CENTER.