Thomas Goolnik, the UK entrepreneur who offered domain names
with a .usa suffix that did not work on most computers, has agreed
to refund customers a total of $350,000, according to Reuters. The
refund is part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission
(FTC), which earlier this year shut down Goolnik's business
following an investigation.
Thomas Goolnik, who is a US resident, was advertising .usa
domain names and e-mail addresses through an e-mail campaign.
However, he failed to disclose that such addresses operate outside
of the ICANN's domain name system, and therefore cannot be accessed
without special software.
The FTC filed a complaint against Goolnik, accusing him of
deceptive advertising practices. The two sides reached a settlement
on Thursday, after months of negotiations, Reuters reports. The
agreement apparently requires Goolnik to refund the fees that
consumers paid to buy the domains, and to stop making further
misrepresentations.
Goolnik, who also offered other unofficial domain names such as
.brit and .scot, claims that he has sold approximately 6,000 .usa
domains at $59 each.
