It seems that the effects of Brexit are already being felt in the .EU TLD, which recently announced its lowest “domains under management” figure since 2012 in its Q4 2018 Progress Report. This report revealed that there was a total of 3,684,750 domain names under management at the end of 2018, a figure that is down 63,129 on the numbers at the end of September 2018.
EURid has been particularly proactive in advising .EU registrants as to the practical implications of Brexit, hence perhaps the drop off in registration numbers; however, it is not solely the .EU TLD that will be impacted. The rights of UK residents to hold domain names in all of the following countries will also be affected post-Brexit:
.FR (France)
.HU (Hungary)
.IT (Italy)
.RE (Reunion Island)
.YT (Mayotte)
.PM (Saint Pierre and Miquelon)
.WF (Wallis and Futuna Islands)
.TF (French Southern and Antarctic Territories)
This is because all of the above TLDs generally require a registrant located in the EU (or in the territory of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). In light of the above, UK-based residents who hold domain names in any of the above TLDs should rapidly take the measures necessary to ensure compliance with EU presence requirements after Brexit.
Authored by Jane Seager and Thomas Raudkivi
