Registrar Ru-Center accused of unfair competition

Ru-Center, Russia's largest domain registrar, has been accused of anti-competitive behavior. The accusation was made by Mikhail Dvorkovich, the brother of a presidential aide, who filed a complaint with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and, unofficially, with law enforcement agencies.

Dvorkovich posted about the charges on his Twitter account. Specifically, he believes that Ru-Center's auctions of 180,000 domain names will allow it to earn $150 million. Furthermore, Dvorkovich reported that Alexey Platonov, director of the Internet Technical Center, which services the .RU, .SU, and .РФ domain zones, owns a controlling stake in the registrar Ru-Center, giving the company a market advantage.

Commenting on his lawsuit, Dvorkovich noted that Ru-Center had registered the domain Dvorkovich.RF in its name, but this, he said, doesn't bother him. However, he believes that "some of the registrar's actions resemble fraud."

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia reports that it has received approximately 20 complaints from individuals and organizations regarding Ru-Center's actions during open registration in the .РФ domain zone. Ru-Center is accustomed to such complaints and is ready to respond to all concerns and questions.