- by David Goldstein -
The end is drawing near on the eligibility of British businesses and individuals to hold .eu domain names. The United Kingdom has now officially left the European Union and entered a formal “transition period”, as of 31 January 2020, during which time British businesses and individuals will be able to continue to register and renew .eu domains.
This transition period will last at least until 31 December 2020. At the end of this transition period, unless there are arrangements made, all British-based registrants will lose their right to hold .eu domain names. To be eligible to hold a .eu domain name, one must be one of the following:
an EU citizen, independently of their place of residence
a natural person who is not an EU citizen but is a resident of a Member State
an undertaking that an organisation is established in the EU
an organisation that is established in the EU.
Upon the end of the transition period, and with no arrangements made that make British registrants eligible, it is likely registrants with a British address will have two months to show they somehow comply with eligibility requirements through at least one of the following:
Contact data changes including updates to existing contact details pertaining to: phone; email; street; postal code; residence or establishment country code (to one of the eligible EU27 or EEA Member State)
Updating a contact or linking a new contact
Providing citizenship country code corresponding to an EU27 Member State
Name server and DNSSEC changes
Transfer the domain name to a non-GB/GI registrant.
Twelve months after the UK withdrawal all the affected domain names will be revoked and will become available for general registration. Their release will occur in batches from the time they become available.
Since it’s been announced that the UK would be leaving the European Union, .eu has been haemorrhaging registrations to British registrants, with the number more than halving to 150,024 at the end of 2019 from an end of quarter peak of 323,166 at the end of the first quarter of 2018.
