First, I will remind you of several important facts related to the business cooperation between Domain and the Government of Montenegro. For 15 years, since the signing of the contract, which was drawn up by the Government of Montenegro, the company has been operating in accordance with the contract and the laws of Montenegro. From April 2023 to December 2025, the company is in a dispute with the Government due to an irresponsible business relationship with the same company with which it has successfully done business for the previous 15 years. Due to this incorrect and unusually irresponsible business behavior (it is a critical infrastructure of Montenegro and a resource of public importance), the company was forced to refer to Article 8.1 of the contract in order to protect its business interest and ensure continuity of exemplary business. Since the end of the court process, Domen continues to manage the .ME domain, a critical infrastructure that is owned by the state of Montenegro, because otherwise there would be a collapse of all services that use the .ME domain in Montenegro and globally. There is nothing disputed in the fact that we still manage the .ME domain, given that we have not received any instructions from the Government of Montenegro on how to behave, which is definitely a disputed circumstance. The attitude towards the company, that is, the narrative of public officials, in which the intention to discredit the good management of the .ME domain, for the sake of personal and political points, is also disputed.
In her work report for the year 2025, the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro specifically pointed out that the Domen company in the claim sought compensation for damages of 45 million euros, and that it “holds and disposes” of the critical infrastructure of the state of Montenegro without a legal basis.
Namely, it is untrue that the Domen company sued the state for damages in the amount of 45 million euros, but this is the determined value of the subject matter of the dispute, and it represents the monetary value that depends on: which court has jurisdiction, the composition of the court, the right to review, the amount of court fees and costs of the procedure. Therefore, if Domain’s lawsuit had been accepted, the company would have continued to operate in accordance with the contract without any compensation for damages. That’s why certain media wrongly conveyed the information that the Protector of Property and Legal Interests “saved” 45 million euros to the state and thus misled the public.
It is also untrue to say that the company holds and disposes of the critical infrastructure of the state of Montenegro without a legal basis. We should make a distinction and say that the company manages, maintains and provides the critical infrastructure of Montenegro without a contractual relationship, as a result of the rejection of the lawsuit by the Montenegrin courts in December 2025.
However, arbitrary interpretations culminate in the recent statements of the Deputy Prime Minister for the political system, judiciary and anti-corruption. He declares that the company did not cooperate in handing over critical infrastructure, that the registration agent paid 114 million euros, and the state 41 million, and that the Domain opened the door for itself /by coercive measure/ for the further use of .ME resources without authorization, and in connection with this, the conclusion was adopted that the protector of property and legal interests of Montenegro should be charged “to consider and initiate a procedure for compensation for damages due to unjust enrichment”, as well as an untrue interpretation of the percentage of ownership of the company ME-net.
Neither I, the CEO of Domen, nor anyone from the team, was contacted by anyone about handing over any data or critical DNS server infrastructure. No one, in 18 years, has shown interest in any business segment except for money from quarterly payments. No one was interested in the industry and changes in the industry. No one followed ICANN, GAC or CENTR activities and regular meetings regarding GDPR or NIS2 directives.
After the judgment of the appellate court, no one contacted us to tell us what the plan was and what the next steps were. No one gave us guidelines on what to do and how to do it. Should we have shut down the servers after the verdict? Or is it better that we continued to do business and preserve the reputation of the .ME domain regardless of the verdict? You will agree, however, that the first option would have disastrous outcomes and that the second option is the only acceptable one. It should be noted – the Domen company still manages the .ME domain conscientiously, professionally and stably.
It is true that the company had a turnover of 114 million euros, that the Government received 57.8 million, of which 47.6 million was paid directly to the budget on the basis of a “concession”, while the remaining amount was paid through dividend tax, salary taxes and contributions. We should not forget that the tax on dividends is almost twice as high as the adoption of the Europe Now 1 program. The company paid its founders EUR 31.4 million in net profit, which represents 27.5% of total revenues, while the Government of Montenegro received 50.7% of total revenues. The Government of Montenegro received almost twice as much money as the founders from this cooperation.
Therefore, I am asking everyone who is “dealing” with the business of the Domain, not to manipulatively handle ownership percentages by presenting ownership percentages to the public as a model for distributing money, because that is not the case.
I will also remind the public that the 43rd Government of Montenegro postponed the time until March 31, 2023 through manipulative negotiations. in order to provide herself with the possibility to announce the tender, hoping that no one will notice their real intentions. And their real intentions can be seen in the fact that the tender for the critical infrastructure of the state of Montenegro was published only in the printed edition of the Pobjeda daily newspaper. We just shared that information with the Montenegrin public. The only way to protect the state from such and such a tender was to file a lawsuit. Our goal was and remains a fair tender where everyone has an equal opportunity to win. As the law stipulates the publication of the tender in at least one media, the law was respected by the 43rd Government, and therefore there is no possibility of putting someone’s responsibility under the public spotlight. But we succeeded in our basic intention, the tender from 2023 was cancelled, now we can openly tell everyone.
The company, unlike several governments, acted proactively and, as early as 2021, proposed that the discussion on cooperation be started on time and that the business and management of the .ME domain be legally regulated on the basis of the .EU domain. And 3 laws, one that will define the right to use the domain, the second that will define the choice of the registration agent and the third that will define what standards the agent should meet. The government has only now adopted changes to the Law on Telecommunications under the pressure of the implementation of the NIS2 directive, and in the wrong way rewriting the legal solution for the .HR domain, which is completely inapplicable to the Montenegrin business model. And we pointed that out to the Government of Montenegro 15 days ago.
The .ME domain is not an affair. The .ME domain is a partnership project created in 2008 with the aim of valorizing digital resources between the Government of Montenegro and the consortium of companies GoDaddy, Afilias (Identity Digital) and ME-net. A partnership in which renowned American companies put their trust in the people who founded ME-net.
The real value of the .ME domain was given by the employees of the company Domen doo with all their associates from Montenegro, and with their work, with the help of American investors, they created a product that is recognizable in the world, that is trusted and that business partners are happy to recommend to their clients globally.
Everything you do and say about the .ME domain is political scheming, and this country needs a strong export-oriented economy.
Predrag Lešić
Executive Director
(Domain.ME)
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