NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 3, 2000--Register.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCOM), a leading domain name registrar on the Internet, has filed a complaint in federal court in New York City against Colorado-based web hosting company Verio (NASDAQ:VRIO).
The complaint accuses Verio of engaging in conduct that misleads register.com's customers into believing that register.com is affiliated with Verio or it's services. The complaint also accuses Verio of accessing register.com's Whois database in violat ion of the terms of use for the purpose of sending unsolicited commercial email and direct mail, and to telemarket to register.com customers.
"Register.com has historically taken great care to respect our customers' privacy, and to that end we have established an 'opt-in' for those who wish to receive unsolicited commercial email and telemarketing offers," said Richard Forman, President and CEO of register.com. "We make every effort to respect the wishes of those customers who ask not to receive such communications from us, and Verio's actions are eroding a very valuable trust that we've established. We have made repeated overtures to Verio to resolve this matter amicably - highlighting numerous complaints we've received from both our customers and our partners. Since Verio has chosen to ignore our requests, we have no alternative than to take legal action in order to protect our customers from these invasive practices."
Register.com began receiving customer complaints in early January, alleging that Verio was soliciting register.com's customers at both their homes and places of business. The complainants expressed anger at being solicited by Verio - particularly thos e who had not "opted-in" to receiving commercial communications. Further escalating the situation, the vast majority of complainants were under the assumption that register.com had forwarded their personal information to Verio.
When register.com's informal contacts to Verio were unsuccessful in bringing an end to Verio's conduct, register.com's counsel sent a cease and desist letter to Verio in May. For a short period of time, Verio halted its solicitations, but soon thereaf ter began aggressively telemarket register.com customers 12-24 hours after they used register.com's domain name registration services. When subsequent communications between register.com's counsel and Verio did not rectify the matter, register.com filed i ts complaint.
Register.com believes that Verio was able to gather register.com's customers' contact information by querying register.com's Whois database, which provides information on domain ownership. Unauthorized commercial use of register.com's Whois database i s prohibited by the terms of use of that database.
About register.com
Register.com, Inc. (www.register.com) provides domain name registration and other Internet services for individuals and businesses that wish to have a unique address and a branded identity on the Internet. Through its partner network, Register.com als o provides telcos, ISPs and other online businesses with the ability to offer, brand and manage their own unique version of the register.com domain registration and Web site creation services.
The first registrar to compete in the domain registration market after the US government deregulated the industry in 1999, register.com was ranked among the top 100 Web sites by PC magazine and listed as one of Fortune Magazine's 25 Products to Watch in November 1999. The company was founded in 1994 and is based in New York City. For investor information, visit our Web site at http://investor.register.com.
Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-loo king statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, potential volatility in register.com's stock price, uncertainty of future revenue and profitability, uncertainty of regulation related to the domain registration business and th e Internet generally, increasing competition in the domain name registration business, customer acceptance of new products and services offered by the company in addition to or as enhancements of its registration services and the rate of growth of the Int ernet and online commerce, and other factors detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2000 and our Registration Statement on Form S-1, as amended, filed on July 27, 2000.
CONTACT: PR Contacts:
Shonna Keogan, 212/798-9149
skeogan@register.com
or
Valerie Kristlibas, 212/798-9114
valerie@register.com
or
Investor Relations Contact:
Stephanie Marks, 212/798-9169
smarks@register.com
Monday December 11, 10:30 am Eastern Time
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 11, 2000-- Register.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCOM), a leading provider of global domain name registration services, today announced that in an order entered on Friday, December 8, 2000, the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, granted register.com's motion for a preliminary injunction against Colorado-based web hosting company Verio, Inc., a subsidiary of NTT Communications (NYSE: NTT).
As a result of the order, pending a final decision on the merits of register.com's claims, Verio is enjoined from accessing register.com's Whois database to target register.com customers with unsolicited commercial email, direct mail and telemarketing activity. In addition, Verio is preliminarily enjoined from engaging in conduct that misleads register.com's customers into believing that register.com is affiliated with Verio or its services.
Filed August 3, 2000, register.com's complaint accused Verio of deceiving register.com's customers with misleading marketing tactics and violating the terms of use for register.com's Whois database. Register.com moved to preliminarily enjoin Verio's activities, alleging that they constituted breach of contract, trespass to chattels in relation to its computer database, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and violation of the Lanham Act. In an order entered December 8, 2000, the Court found register.com likely to succeed on the merits of each of these claims.
``This is a great victory for register.com, our customers, our partners and our entire industry,'' said Richard Forman, President and CEO of register.com. ``We have taken great care to build and preserve our relationships with our customers and business partners. Many business partners contract with us for the right to market to our customers, be it through advertising on our site or otherwise. It is extremely heartening to us that the Court recognized the value of these relationships which we have worked so diligently to create.''
Register.com commenced legal action against Verio based on customer complaints the company started receiving in January 2000, alleging that Verio was soliciting register.com's customers at both their homes and places of business. The complainants expressed anger at being solicited by Verio - particularly those who had not ``opted-in'' to receiving commercial communications. The vast majority of complainants were under the assumption that register.com had forwarded their personal information to Verio. During expedited discovery, register.com learned that these practices were a deliberate part of a Verio marketing campaign.``
The December 8 preliminary injunction enjoins Verio from the following:
About register.com
Register.com, Inc. (www.register.com) provides domain name registration and other Internet services for individuals and businesses that wish to have a unique address and a branded identity on the Internet. The first registrar to compete in the domain registration market after its deregulation in 1999, register.com has processed over 3 million registrations across over 230 top level domains.
Register.com bundles value-added products and services with domain names at no additional cost including: email, URL forwarding, Domain Manager(TM) and FirstStepSite(TM). Register.com also offers additional paid products and services as well as domain resale services through its subsidiary, Afternic.com.
Through the company's partner network, register.com also provides telcos, ISPs and other online businesses and communities with the ability to offer, brand and manage their own unique version of the register.com domain registration and Web site creation services. The company was founded in 1994 and is based in New York.
Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the final outcome in register.com's litigation against Verio, Inc., volatility in register.com's stock price, uncertainty of future revenue and profitability, uncertainty regarding the introduction of new top level domains and multilingual domain names, increasing competition across all segments of the domain name registration business, customer acceptance of new products and services offered by the company in addition to or as enhancements of its registration services, uncertainty of regulation related to the domain registration business and the Internet generally and the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce, and other factors detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2000.
Register.com, Inc., New York
PR Contacts:
Shonna Keogan, 212/798-9149
skeogan@register.com
or
Valerie Kristlibas, 212/798-9114
valerie@register.com
or
Investor Relations Contact:
Stephanie Marks, 212/798-9169
smarks@register.com