The request followed a number of market research studies, which were funded by VeriSign in an attempt to determine the extent of the problem. Those surveys revealed that one third of domain registration transfers from VeriSign to rival registrars that were purportedly authorised by customers had been carried out without any customer authorisation.
Until recently, the domain registration transfer system operated by VeriSign allowed a transfer to take place whenever a rival registrar submitted a claim stating that a customer had authorised a transfer. The transfer was made free of charge and without verification of the customer’s request. Although VeriSign has now adopted a different transfer procedure, it argues that the new system will only be a short-term solution to the problem and that ICANN must ensure proper safeguards are adopted in the future.