Network Solutions might unfairly overcharge consumers for the purchase of internet domain names by front running the purchase.

Investigation and pending class action lawsuit against Network Solutions one of the largest seller of domain names on the internet.

The class action lawsuit alleges Network Solutions improperly profits from the way it reserves a domain name after a potential customer searches for it. The litigation stems from Networks Solutions' adoption of a policy in early January aimed at curtailing so-called front-running, which occurs when someone learns of a potential customer's interest in a given domain name, buys it before the customer does and then sells the name to the customer at an inflated price. Network Solutions began automatically reserving the searched-for domain name -- the company in effect registers it for itself -- for four days so that front-runners would not be able to buy it before the interested customer does. The problem, according to the lawsuit, is that during those four days, the customer can buy the domain name only from Network Solutions, which charges prices generally several times higher than those of competing domain-name sellers.