Global Domain Name and Internet Policy News
There were 174,903 new .eu domain name registrations in the first quarter of 2021 taking the overall total registrations in the European ccTLD to 3,724,513, according to EURid’s Q1 2022 Progress Report [pdf] released last week. Three countries led the way with Luxembourg showing an increase in registrations of 7.4% for the quarter, Portugal (4.5%) and Liechtenstein (2.8%).
Catching up on what’s been happening at EURid is the focus of today’s post. Over the last three months EURid has released their 2021 fourth quarter report, released 48,000 .eu domain names that were previously registered to British registrants, announced Greek character .eu domain name registrations will be deleted (Greek character domains should be registered under .ευ), continued COVID-related domain checks for nefarious registrations to March with their APEWS, published the first annual report of the Dynamic Coalition on Data and Trust, published results of their 2021 Registrar Satisfaction Survey (positive), continued support of the Surfrider Foundation Europe, they currently have a vacancy open for Legal Counsel while the CEO position has closed and announced an additional verification method for providing evidence of a registrant’s identity. Phew!
British .eu registrants have been given a final reminder that unless they update their registration details to an eligible address by 30 June 2021, their domain names will be “withdrawn” on 1 July 2021. The only exception is for those .eu registrants within the UK who are citizens of the European Union or the wider European Economic Area.
The United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020, but the 11 month transition period meant the UK was still bound by the EU’s rules. At the end of the transition period it was known businesses and citizens of the UK would lose the right to register .EU domain names. What very few realised was that due to the terms and conditions for .fr, they would lose the right to register and hold .fr domain names as well.
The “vile” and “odious” Leave.EU appears to have had their domain name suspended, temporarily at least, following the pro-Brexit campaign group having transferred registration of their domain name to an Irish businessperson who denies any involvement in Leave.EU.
The move by the pro-Brexit campaign group Leave.EU to change their domain name contact details to an Irish address has been met with condemnation by an Irish politician who has described the group as an “odious organisation … with a dubious reputation”.
With Britons and British companies no longer eligible to hold .eu domain names following Brexit, the Leave campaign have shown what hypocrites they are by updating the contact details for their domain name, Leave.eu, to an Irish address, in order to keep it.
Brexit impacted all manner of life in Britain when the country left the European Union on 1 February 2020, and this included .eu domain names. As of 1 January Britons are ineligible to hold .eu domain names after the “Transition Period” came to an end on 31 December.
With the Brexit transition period set to end on 31 December, any remaining British registrants of .eu domain names are set to find their domains suspended as of 1 January unless they can transfer their contact details to an eligible registrant. Currently there are over 122,000 British registrants of .eu domain names.
For British .eu registrants, and there are currently around 135,000 of them, if they hadn’t realised they were about to lose their domain names as a result of Brexit, a notice sent to them by the .eu registry EURid last week may have jolted them into action to do something as they will no longer be eligible to hold their .eu domain name as of 1 January 2020.