GREAT BRITAIN – As a potentially unexpected side-effect of Brexit – the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union in January 2020 – approximately 48,000 websites with the domain name “.eu” are now effectively in limbo, having been taken offline on Monday since the UK citizens and organizations who own them are no longer allowed to hold those domains.
The revocation of those .eu domain names by the agency in charge of registrations on Monday was the final step in the Brexit transition process, which began that January.
The citizens and originations that owned the websites in question were informed that they needed to prove they resided within the EU in order to be eligible to own a .eu domain or face revocation, which would result in losing web hosting and the ability to send and receive email.
As part of the Brexit transition process, over 80,000 websites were suspended on December 31, 2020, with those failing to prove their eligibility for an .eu domain having their website status changed to “withdrawn.”
The 48,000 or so remaining stragglers – including well-known pro-Brexit site Leave.eu – had their domains indefinitely revoked on Monday, according to a European Registry for Internet Domains (EURid) spokesperson.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
A EURid spokesperson confirmed that the 48,000 revoked domain names – including Leave.eu – would now be made available in batches as of Monday to EU citizens and organizations on a “first come, first served basis.”
