Hostpoint sharply criticizes Switch

If existing .li domain holders do not choose a new domain partner by February 13, 2013, Switch will automatically transfer their customers to Switchplus. Switch is thus once again favoring its subsidiary switchplus in a questionable manner and is putting pressure on domain holders and registration partners with an extremely short deadline.

In a letter sent to its registration partners last week, the Switch Foundation, which has been commissioned by OFCOM and the Office of Communications Liechtenstein to operate the registry for .ch and .li domains, announced that it intends to concentrate "fully" on its registry activities and hand over the direct customer business to its partners. Switch will therefore discontinue its direct customer business with .li domains as of February 14, 2013. The foundation will inform existing .li customers in the next few days. They should transfer their .li domains to a partner of their choice by February 13. Switch intends to automatically transfer .li domains that have not been transferred to a partner by then to its commercial subsidiary Switchplus after February 13, 2013.

Questionable preferential treatment of the Switchplus subsidiary

For Hostpoint, the largest web hosting provider in Switzerland, this is yet another attempt by the semi-public Switch Foundation to unilaterally favor its commercial subsidiary Switchplus over the other providers active on the Swiss market and thus exploit its position of market power, according to a statement issued on Monday. It is to be feared that a large proportion of .-li domains will automatically fall to Switchplus due to the technical complexity for customers and the short transition period. This would give Switch's subsidiary Switchplus an unjustifiably high market share.

Hostpoint welcomes Switch's move to hand over the domain customers it has long held as a monopoly to its partners and to concentrate on the registry business in future. However, the distribution of .li domain customers must be in line with the market. Hostpoint therefore considers it appropriate that the domain customers are distributed among the registry partners on the basis of a key based on the registry partners' market share in the .li market.

Preference for switchplus also for .ch domains?

In the letter, Switch points out that it no longer considers the current model, in which Switch is both registry and registrar, to be in line with the market and that it had informed Bakom of this in a survey on the future of the Swiss domain market. According to Hostpoint, this clearly shows that Switch intends to follow the same pattern for the more widespread Swiss domain extension .ch. If the .ch domains were indeed to follow the same pattern, the still young company Switchplus would become one of the largest domain registrars in Switzerland in one fell swoop, practically without any action on its part.