Just guessing, but the "extortion" fee's are likely due to renewing the domain after it has 'expired', during one of the last chance renewal phases.

https://help.enom.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003360647-Renew-E...

https://www.enom.com/kb/kb/kb_1487-last-chance-renew.htm

There is a whole process via which domains expire, they do not simply become available to register upon their 'expiry' date.

Full process is outlined here: https://tee-solutions.com/index.php/our-blog/127-domain-name...

>”extortion”

Why the scare quotes?

Because it’s as exactly as RileyJames said above. It was ultimately my own doing but was masked by the strange relationship eNom has/had with Google. It felt like extortion, but wasn’t in reality, just business practices that don’t put the customer first.

The person you're replying to is quoting another comment above and I am guessing they might not agree with the legal connotation the word carriers.

I guess, it does fit the common dictionary definitions though. Other companies in the space do not charge such fees.