Thousands of .eu websites go down with Brexit related changes

At the end of the Brexit transition period, approximately 48,000 .eu websites were taken offline as British citizens and the organizations that own them were no longer allowed to hold these domains.

With announcements on 3 websitesrd In January, EURid (.eu Top Level Domain Registry Manager) said it had revoked and released all affected domain names after moving to “WITH DRAWN” status on July 1, 2021.

Canceled domains can now be generally registered on a “first come, first served” basis.

This move marks the final stage of the process, which began about two years ago after the UK left the European Union on January 31, 2020.

In 2018, the EU decided to simply cancel the .eu domain registered with a UK citizen or UK address. However, the decision has offended many British citizens and businesses operating in the EU, as well as EU citizens living in the UK who threatened to challenge the decision in court.

The EU has amended the rules many times and the final iteration is scheduled for October 2020. This states that only the following individuals, organizations, and businesses can register .eu domain names:

  • EU citizens who do not depend on their place of residence.
  • A naturalized person who is not an EU citizen but a resident of a member state.
  • A business established in the EU.also
  • An organization established within the EU without compromising the application of national law.

The EU has also determined that UK .eu domain owners who have moved their domain’s registered address from a UK address to somewhere in the EU are eligible to hold the domain.

UK domain holders who failed to prove eligibility before the end of the 31-day transition periodst The domain was suspended in December 2020.

EURid no longer supports services (such as websites and emails) for domain names with “SUSPENDED” status in January last year, but can be restored if registration data is updated to meet eligibility criteria. There is sex. “

To 1st In July 2021, all SUSPENDED domains that could not update their registration details were moved to “WITH DRAWN” status.This was true up to 3rd In January 2022, all of these domains were revoked and released for registration by EURid.

“For the past 12 months, our staff has been working hard to support the owners of these domain names and to meet the numerous demands for returning domain names to enrollment status as soon as the eligibility criteria are met. It’s done, “said a spokesman for EURid. Politico..

One of the big ironies of this situation is that the UK’s Brexit group Leave.EU, founded by British activist Arron Banks, has been forced to register an EU address (in this case Ireland) to maintain its valuable domain. It was done.

However, EURid said on Monday that the Leave.EU domain was issued with a “WITH DRAWN” status because the owner did not respond to the data validation request as a result of the investigation.

Leave.EU was one of the domains that EU citizens or residents could re-register after January 3rd.

Menu