NEW YORK – The federal government has cleared VeriSign Inc. to manage the databases that house ".com" domain names for another six years, but the company won't be allowed to raise prices without approval.

Under the current contract, which expires Friday, VeriSign was guaranteed four price increases of up to 7 percent each on domain name registrations. VeriSign sought a similar guarantee as part of the contract renewal, but the Commerce Department rejected it. The new contract freezes the annual price at the current $7.85 per name, barring special circumstances.

"Consumers will benefit from VeriSign's removal of the automatic price increases," Lawrence E. Strickling, assistant Commerce secretary for communication and information, said in a statement. "At the same time, the agreement protects the security and stability of the Internet by allowing VeriSign to take cost-based price increases where justified."