EURid, the Registry responsible for the .EU Top Level Domain (TLD), suspended over 81,000 .EU domain names held by UK-based registrants at the beginning of 2021, pursuant to the end of the UK’s 11-month Brexit transition period. These domain names were set to be “withdrawn” at the end of March 2021 and made available for re-registration in 2022, but EURid has now extended the deadline for compliance with the new rules to the end of June 2021.
In a press release issued on 8 February 2021, EURid noted that 8,000 of the suspended .EU domain names had already been reinstated and announced that the new deadline for withdrawal of the remaining suspended domain names would be 30 June 2021 instead of 31 March 2021. Domain names that are in the “withdrawn” status no longer function and are programmed for release in 2022.
Registrants of the suspended domain names may salvage them by updating the registrant information to indicate an entity legally established in one of the 27 eligible EU countries or EEA Member States, or by updating their residence to a EU27 or EEA Member State, or by proving their citizenship of a EU27 Member State irrespective of their residence.
The number of .EU domain names held by UK-based residents has fallen from around 300,000 in 2017 to around 120,000 in the last quarter of 2020, so it is hoped that the extended deadline will help to stem this drop off by allowing registrants sufficient time to put measures in place to keep hold of their domain names.
Authored by Anchovy News team.
81,000 .EU domain names hang on the Brexit precipice
Anchovy News, February 2021
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