Nearly 48,000 .eu websites have been taken offline because British citizens and organisations who own them are no longer allowed to hold those domains following the end of the Brexit transition period.
In an announcement on its website on 3rd January, EURid – the registry manager for .eu top-level domains – said that it has revoked and released all affected domain names, after moving them to the ‘WITHDRAWN’ status on 1st July 2021.
The revoked domains are once more available for general registration on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis.
The move marks the final step in the process that started about two years ago, after the UK’s exit from the European Union on 31st January 2020.
In 2018, the EU had decided that any .eu domain registered by a British national or with a British address would simply be cancelled. However, the decision angered many British nationals and firms doing business in the EU, as well as EU citizens living in the UK, who threatened to challenge the decision in court.
The EU amended the rules many times, with the final iteration coming in October 2020. This stated that only the following persons, organisations and undertakings would be eligible to register .eu domain names:
- An EU citizen, independent of their place of residence;
- A naturalised person who is not an EU citizen and who is a resident of a Member State;
- An undertaking that is established in the EU; or
- An organisation that is established in the EU, without prejudice to the application of national law.
The EU also ruled that any British .eu domain holder who shifted their domain’s registration address from a UK address to somewhere in the EU would be eligible to retain the domain.
British domain holders who failed to prove their eligibility before the end of the transition period on 31st December 2020 had their domains suspended.
EURid said in January last year that ‘a domain name in the ‘SUSPENDED’ status can no longer support any service (such as website and email), but may still be reinstated if registration data is updated to meet the eligibility criteria.’
On 1st July 2021, all SUSPENDED domains that failed to update their registration details were moved to the ‘WITHDRAWN’ status. This held true until 3rd January 2022, when all those domains were revoked and released for registration by EURid.
“Over the past 12 months our staff has been working tirelessly to support the holders of these domain names and follow up on the numerous requests to reinstate a domain name into the registered status as soon as the eligibility criteria were met,” an EURid spokesman told Politico.
One of the great ironies of the situation was that pro-Brexit group Leave.EU, founded by British activist Arron Banks, was forced to register an EU address (in this case, Ireland) to keep its prized domain.
However, EURid stated on Monday that following an investigation, the Leave.EU domain was issued with a ‘WITHDRAWN’ status after the owner failed to respond to data verification requests.
Leave.EU was one of the domains available for re-registration by an EU citizen or resident after the 3rd January.
