EURid recently released their 2019 annual report and it was a year of some quite significant milestones that recognised the .eu registry for its achievements, but it was also a year where Brexit was a significant drag on .eu registrations, this being the major reason for a decline of over 78,000 registrations for the year.
Britain and other European countries are continuing to push for a global digital tax on technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, despite the US pulling out of the negotiations this week.
Covid-19 has not been a harbinger of doom for Amazon, unlike the case with many other firms.
For the last few months, some people who bought a new smartphone in Europe with Google’s Android software were presented with an extra option while setting up the device: choosing a search engine other than Google.
Following the agreement between EURid and both institutions appointed to rule on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) proceedings for the .eu top-level domain (the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center and the Czech Arbitration Court), the .eu registry announced last week the fee for a basic .eu ADR procedure will remain discounted until 30 June 2020.
This means that the ADR fee per dispute complaint is as low as â¬100.
If you wish to dispute a .eu, .ÐµÑ or .εÏ
domain name registration, and believe that you have a prior right (within the EU or EEA) to that domain name (e.g. you hold a trademark, trade name, company name, family name, and so on) and that the current holder has registered or is using the domain name for speculative or abusive purposes, you may challenge its registration by initiating an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure.
CENTR is to hold its annual pan-European Registrar Day in at The Hotel in Brussels, Belgium, on 8 October. It will be followed by the fourth CENTR Awards, which aim at highlighting country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry projects, teams and people that make a difference in the domain name industry, and which this year will also mark CENTR’s 20th Anniversary.
CENTR encourages registries and registrars from all over Europe to come together and mix and mingle, exchange on best practices, improve on or create new business relationships and get updates from industry experts. They say to expect a re-run of last yearâs successful speed-networking session, as well as a tailored agenda based on feedback and key topics of interest.
To register, CENTR say to reach out to your local ccTLD registry. The draft agenda as published by CENTR is:
9:00 Welcome and introductions
9:10 Registry-registrar speed-networking
10:40 Coffee break
11:10 The role of eIDs in an age of data accuracy
11:30 Domain name market trends
12:30 Lunch break
14:00 Break-out sessions
15:00 Plenary: outcome of break-out session discussions
15:30 Coffee break
16:00 EU Policy Update
16:30 The future of the domain name industry – open mic session
17:00 End
As part of an international operation, Europol’s Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition (IPC3) seized 33,654 domain names distributing counterfeit and pirated items online. This takes the total to more than one million that have been seized in the past 12 months. Continue reading Over 33,000 Domain Names Seized Selling Counterfeit Goods in Latest Operation In Our Sites
Today [19 Nov], ICANN announced that the third Eastern European Domain Name System Forum (EEDNSF) will take place from 4-5 December 2018, in Moscow, Russia, following the success of the first edition in Kiev, Ukraine (2016), and the second one in Minsk, Belarus (2017). The event is jointly organized by ICANN and the Coordination Center for National Domains .RU/.РФ (cctld.ru).
This event is part of ICANN‘s regional outreach efforts to raise awareness on issues related to the Domain Name System (DNS), and collaborate with stakeholders on key areas. It comes as a continuation of the earlier engagement efforts to bring global discussions on the DNS to the regional level, and uncover the contexts surrounding the regional perspectives.
Sessions on the first day will cover technical topics. The second day will be devoted to policy-related discussions. The Forum’s topics include:
ICANN‘s Chief Technology Officer David Conrad, and Chief Security, Stability and Resiliency Officer John Crain will be at the event participating in discussions related to the evolution and security of the DNS, and the current challenges faced. Other regional and global actors of the DNS industry will also attend the forum, contributing to the sessions with their experiences and areas of expertise.
Register here and visit the EEDNSF website for more information. You can track the event on social media with the hashtag #EEDNSF.
Remote participation will be available for those interested in participating, but unable to attend in-person.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2018-11-19-en
Globally domain name registrations have grown 5.7% in the year to the end of October to 344 million, with growth highest among new gTLDs (7.1%) and African ccTLDs (6.2%), while growth is lowest in the Americas (1.4%), Europe (2.6%) and Asia (2.9%), according to the latest CENTRstats Global TLD Report.
While growth is highest among new gTLDs, with many still launching, as well as African ccTLDs, both have the lowest average number of domain names registered per top level domain.
According to the report, ccTLDs made up 44% of the global domain market, most of which comes from the European market. And while ccTLD growth was highest in Africa in the 12 months to the end of October, it has been from a relatively small base. Growth among ccTLDs in Asia and the Americas have slowed down, particularly among Latin American and Caribbean ccTLDs where median growth was 1.4% YOY at October 2018.
For many European ccTLDs, the report notes 2018 has been focused around GDPR. This has no doubt left some with less marketing resources, but despite this, registrations have continued with relative stability. Although the long term growth average continues to decline, it is doing so at a much reduced rate. At the end of the third quarter however, the median growth hit a new low of 2.7% (1.5% for the top 10 largest ccTLDs). Driving this decline was a sharp slow down in rates of new adds between March and August 2018, particularly among some of the larger ccTLDs. This was aggravated by deletes which did not reduce at the same level. Despite this, the average renewal rate remained strong at a median of 84% (slightly lower at 81% among the top 10 largest ccTLDs).
Across Europe, the average local market share to ccTLDs is estimated at 58% for registrations and 37% for local web traffic. In both cases, the figures are higher when filtered to central and eastern European countries.
Among the new generic top level domains, registrations totalled some 22.5 million – up 11% from 1 year prior. While many new gTLDs are growing well, roughly one third of the top 300 have contracted over the year. Larger legacy gTLDs such as .net, .org and .info have also seen declines, while .com has been increasing its growth rates. The new .app exploded into the market in the middle of year and has around 320K domains so far.
Of the new gTLDs, 539 are for .brands according to the Dot Brand Observatory, 170 of which are active, for a total of 12,115 domain names, which makes for an average of just over 22 domain names per .brand gTLD. Which leaves 694 new gTLDs open to public registrations with an average of 276,495 registrations per gTLD. A note of caution, the numbers from different sources may not align in terms of dates, but they will be close.
For country code top level domains, the average number of domain names among the African ccTLDs is around 58,600, in the Americas 262,300, Asia 645,900 and in Europe 1,257,900.
Of the top 15 TLDs, at the end of October, there were 3 that recorded growth rates of more than 5.0% for the year – .com (5.1%), .uk (9.8%) and .ca (5.2%) while .fr had growth of 4.7%. There were also 3 that declined by more than 5.0% – .net (6.1%), .info (17.6%) and .ru (7.4%).
The full CENTRstats Global TLD Report is available to download with interactive charts and tables from:
https://centr.org/statistics-centr/quarterly-reports.html
https://stats.centr.org/stats/global
EURALO and CENTR announced Tuesday they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) alongside the 2018 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Paris to formalise their existing relationship promoting internet coordination activities in Europe.
In their announcement, the European Regional At-Large Organization (EURALO) and the Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR) note that both parties have pledged to collaborate for the promotion of Internet coordination activities in the European region.
More specifically, they will continue to encourage awareness of each otherâs activities and mission, as well as jointly organising capacity-building events and other meetings, trainings, projects of workshops related to Internet policy and governance. They will also continue to promote Internet development in the European region and an open, bottom-up, multistakeholder Internet governance model.
“I am very pleased to sign this Memorandum with CENTR on behalf of EURALO,â said Olivier Crépin-Leblond, chair of EURALO. âThe aim of EURALO, as defined by our community, is to have at least one At-Large Structure in every country of our region. Collaborating with CENTR will reinforce the multistakeholder model that has already generated great opportunities, starting with National and Regional IGFs. Thanks to CENTR for considering this collaboration and to AFNIC for proposing that we sign this document at the IGF in Paris.”
âThe IGF provides us with an excellent opportunity to strengthen and formalise the collaboration between EURALO and CENTR,â Jörg Schweiger, CENTR Chair said. âCENTR Members have a long tradition of closely working together with their local Internet Communities. EURALO is well represented in those communities, and we look forward to our increased collaboration and information exchange on a regional level and for our work in the international environment.â
There are 5 RALOs, of which EURALO is one, that unite ICANNâs At-Large Structures (ALSes) and individual members based on their geographic regions. As the information conduit and facilitators, RALOs disseminate information from ICANN, promote the participation of their members, and channel the regional user point of view to ICANN. Each RALO is governed by its own organising documents, including a Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN. Playing a key role in ICANNâs regional strategies, several RALOs partner with ICANN to facilitate the development of critical infrastructure for the Domain Name System.
EURALO unites European Internet end-user voices within the At-Large community. EURALO consists of Internet-related civil society and consumer interests, representing their views in the bottom-up, consensus-based, multi-stakeholder ICANN policy development process.
CENTR is the European association of country-code top level domain (ccTLD) registries.
