.eu
Encyclopedia
.eu is the country code top-level domain
(ccTLD) for the European Union
(EU). Launched 7 December 2005, the domain is available for organisations in and residents of EU member states
. The TLD is administered by EURid
, a consortium consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium
, Sweden
, Italy
and the Czech Republic
. Trademark
owners were able to submit registrations through a sunrise period, in an effort to prevent cybersquatting
. Full registration started on 7 April 2006.
on 22 March 2005 and put in the Internet root zone
on 2 May 2005. Even though the EU is not a country (it is a sui generis
intergovernmental
and supranational organisation), there are precedents of issuing top-level domains to other entities—e.g. .nato
. See also GeoTLD
.
.eu.int was the subdomain
most used by the European Commission
and the European Parliament
, based on the .int
generic top-level domain
(gTLD) for international bodies, until 9 May 2006. The .eu domain (ccTLD) was launched in December 2005, and because of this most .eu.int domain names changed to .europa.eu on Europe day
, 9 May 2006.
was broken into two phases. The first phase, which began on 7 December 2005 was to facilitate applications by registrants with prior rights based on trademarks and geographic names. The second phase began on 7 February 2006 and covered company, trade and personal names. In the case of all Sunrise applications, the application needed to be accompanied by documents proving the claim to ownership of a certain right. The decision was then made by PricewaterhouseCoopers
Belgium, which had been chosen as the validation agent by EURid
.
On 7 February 2006, the registry was opened for company, trade and personal names. In the first 15 minutes, there were 27,949 total applications, and after one hour, 71,235.
and small registrars like Dotster suffered from long queues and unresponsiveness, allowing people to 'beat the queue' by registering through a registrar that had already processed its queue. By August 2006, 2 Million .eu domains had been registered. It is now the third largest domain in Europe, after .de
and .uk
, and is the seventh largest internationally.
Bob Parsons
, CEO and co-founder of Go Daddy, criticized the landrush process designed by EURid. Particularly, he condemned the use of shell companies by some registrars. In his blog, he stated "These companies, instead of only registering their real active registrars, created hundreds of new "phantom" registrars." Parsons cited a group of about 400 companies, all with similar address and contact information based in New York, each registered as an LLC
; in his opinion, these were phantom registrars "created to hijack the .EU landrush."
These "phantom" registrars effectively had hundreds of opportunities of registering a domain whereas a genuine registrar effectively only had one opportunity to register the same domain. Thus some registrants were crowded out of the .eu landrush process and many generic .eu domain names are now owned by the companies using these "phantom" registrars.
Patrik Lindén, spokesman for EURid, denied the allegations by Parsons, stating that "[EURid] verified that each registrar was an individual legal entity. Each had to sign an agreement with us, and prepay €10,000." Parsons didn't dispute that each registrar was a separate legal entity, but noted that creating such entities was trivial: "Mr. Linden seemed proud that the EURid registry verified that each applicant was a legal entity before it was accredited. Take a moment and think about what that means. You can form a “legal entity” for $50 – an LLC – and you are good to go. Is that what we want a registry to do? Don’t we want them instead to make sure that the organization it allows to provide end-users with its domain names – especially Europe’s very own domain name – are actually in the domain name registration business?"
The EURid organisation investigated some allegations of abuse, and in July 2006 announced the suspension of over 74,000 domain names and that they were suing 400 registrars for breach of contract. The status of the domains was changed from ACTIVE to ON-HOLD. This meant that the domains could not be moved or have their ownership changed. The registrars also lost their access to the EURid registration database meaning that they could no longer register .eu domain names. The legal action relates to the practice of Domain name warehousing
, whereby large numbers of domain names are registered, often by registrars, with the intention of subsequently selling them on to third parties. EURid rules state that applications for domains can only be made after a legitimate application has been made to a registrar. The 74,000 applications were made in the name of only three Cyprus registered companies— Ovidio Ltd, Fausto Ltd and Gabino Ltd.
The affected registrars, joined in the action by the affected registrants obtained a provisional order from the Court of First Instance in Brussels, Belgium on 27 September 2006. The court ordered EURid to release the blocked domain names or else pay a fine of €25000 per hour for each affected domain name. EURid complied with the court order and changed the status of the domains from ON HOLD to ACTIVE and restored EURid registration database access to the affected registrars.
The main legal action, that of EURid seeking the registrar agreements between EURid and the registrars in question to be dissolved has still to be heard.
.europa.eu has been reserved for EU institution sites, with institutions and agencies making the switch from .eu.int to .europa.eu domains on the Europe day of 9 May 2006. The European Central Bank
is however not under the "Europa umbrella" due to its political independence, and uses only ECB.int, but ecb.europa.eu is an alias.
) uses include Basque webpages (as the initial letters of Euskadi or the language Euskara) and Romania
n, Portuguese
, or Galician personal sites, as eu is the equivalent of the English pronoun 'I' in those languages.
In most countries of the EU, the national ccTLDs have the major share of the market with the remainder spread over .com
/.net
/.org
/.info
/.biz
. As a result of this, .eu has had an uphill battle to gain a significant share of these national markets. The dominant players tend to be the national ccTLD and .com. The other TLDs such as .net
, .org
and to a lesser extent .info
and .biz
have progressively smaller shares of these national markets.
Over one year after the launch of .eu (5 July 2007), the number of .de
domains registered was 11,079,557 according to the German .de registry's statistics page, while number of German owned .eu domains according to EURid's statistics page was 796,561. The number of .uk
domains registered was 6,038,732 according to .uk registry Nominet's statistics page. The number of apparently UK owned .eu domains was 344,584.
According to page 20 of EURid
's Annual Report for 2006, the breakdown of .eu domain ownership figures on 31 December 2006 was:
The number of registrants with five domains or fewer registered in .eu ccTLD was, according to these statistics, 805,316. These registrants accounted for 1,128,454 domains out of 2,444,947 .eu domains registered as of 31 December 2006. These registrations, typically those of individuals and companies protecting their brand, only represent 46% of the number of registered .eu domains.
It had been actively targeted during the Sunrise period by speculators using fast track Benelux trademarks to create prior rights on various high value generic terms and during the landrush by speculators using EU front companies in the UK and Cyprus to register large numbers of domains. While speculative activity occurred with the launch of other domains, it was the scale of the activity that called into question the competence of EURid in protecting the integrity of eu ccTLD.
The number of .eu domain registrations during the year after the landrush 7 April 2006 to 6 April 2007 seems to have peaked at approximately 2.6 million .eu domains. The market adjustment that follows a landrush in any domain name extension ensures that the number of registered domains will fall as many speculative domain registrations that failed to be resold will not be renewed. This is sometimes referred to as the Junk Dump. On the morning of 7 April 2007, the number of active .eu domains stood at 2,590,160 with approximately 15,000 domains having been deleted since 5 April 2007.
Approximately 1.5 million .eu domains were up for renewal in April 2007. The EURid registry software is based on the DNS. be software and domains are physically renewed at the end of the month of their anniversary of registration. This process differs from more sophisticated registries like that of .com
TLD
and other ccTLDs that operate on a daily basis. As with any post-landrush phase, an extension shrinks as the Junk Dump takes effect.
The extent of the shrinkage of .eu ccTLD is difficult to estimate because EURid does not publish detailed statistics on the number of new domains registered each day. Instead it provides only a single figure for the number of active domains. The number of new registrations are combined with numbers of domains registered. Approximately 250,000 .eu domains were either deleted or moved into quarantine by 30 April.
Country code top-level domain
A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory....
(ccTLD) for the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(EU). Launched 7 December 2005, the domain is available for organisations in and residents of EU member states
Member State of the European Union
A member state of the European Union is a state that is party to treaties of the European Union and has thereby undertaken the privileges and obligations that EU membership entails. Unlike membership of an international organisation, being an EU member state places a country under binding laws in...
. The TLD is administered by EURid
EURid
EURid vzw/asbl is a non-profit organisation established on 8 April 2003 by the European Commission as the domain name registry to operate the new .eu top-level domain....
, a consortium consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. Trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
owners were able to submit registrations through a sunrise period, in an effort to prevent cybersquatting
Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...
. Full registration started on 7 April 2006.
Establishment
The .eu TLD was approved by ICANNICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
on 22 March 2005 and put in the Internet root zone
DNS root zone
A DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in a Domain Name System hierarchy. Most commonly it refers to the root zone of the largest global DNS, deployed for the Internet. Ultimate authority over the DNS root zone rests with the US Department of Commerce NTIA...
on 2 May 2005. Even though the EU is not a country (it is a sui generis
Sui generis
Sui generis is a Latin expression, literally meaning of its own kind/genus or unique in its characteristics. The expression is often used in analytic philosophy to indicate an idea, an entity, or a reality which cannot be included in a wider concept....
intergovernmental
Intergovernmental
Intergovernmental can refer to:*Intergovernmentalism*Intergovernmental Risk Pool*Intergovernmental organization...
and supranational organisation), there are precedents of issuing top-level domains to other entities—e.g. .nato
.nato
The domain name nato was a top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The domain was added in the late 1980s by InterNIC for the use of NATO, based on the representation that none of the then existing top-level domains adequately reflected their status as an international...
. See also GeoTLD
GeoTLD
A GeoTLD is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet using the name of or invoking an association with a geographical, geopolitical, ethnic, linguistic or cultural community....
.
.eu.int was the subdomain
Subdomain
In the Domain Name System hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain.- Overview :The Domain Name System has a tree structure or hierarchy, with each node on the tree being a domain name. A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain, the only domain that is not...
most used by the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
and the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, based on the .int
.int
The domain name int is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the word international, characterizing its use for world-wide purposes....
generic top-level domain
Generic top-level domain
A generic top-level domain is one of the categories of top-level domains maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet....
(gTLD) for international bodies, until 9 May 2006. The .eu domain (ccTLD) was launched in December 2005, and because of this most .eu.int domain names changed to .europa.eu on Europe day
Europe Day
In Europe, Europe Day is an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe. There are two separate designations of Europe Day: 5 May for the Council of Europe, and 9 May for the European Union...
, 9 May 2006.
Sunrise period
The Sunrise PeriodSunrise Period
A sunrise period is a period of time after the launch of a new top-level domain or second-level domain during which owners of trademarks may register a domain name containing the owned mark....
was broken into two phases. The first phase, which began on 7 December 2005 was to facilitate applications by registrants with prior rights based on trademarks and geographic names. The second phase began on 7 February 2006 and covered company, trade and personal names. In the case of all Sunrise applications, the application needed to be accompanied by documents proving the claim to ownership of a certain right. The decision was then made by PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
Belgium, which had been chosen as the validation agent by EURid
EURid
EURid vzw/asbl is a non-profit organisation established on 8 April 2003 by the European Commission as the domain name registry to operate the new .eu top-level domain....
.
On 7 February 2006, the registry was opened for company, trade and personal names. In the first 15 minutes, there were 27,949 total applications, and after one hour, 71,235.
Landrush
On 7 April 2006 at 11 am CET registration became possible for non-trademark holders. Most people requesting domains had asked their registrars to put their requested domains in a queue, ensuring the best chance to register a domain. This way more than 700,000 domains were registered during the first 4 hours of operation. Some large registrars like Go DaddyGo Daddy
Go Daddy is an Internet domain registrar and Web hosting company that also sells e-business related software and services. In 2010, it reached more than 45 million domain names under management. Go Daddy is currently the largest ICANN-accredited registrar in the world, and is four times the size of...
and small registrars like Dotster suffered from long queues and unresponsiveness, allowing people to 'beat the queue' by registering through a registrar that had already processed its queue. By August 2006, 2 Million .eu domains had been registered. It is now the third largest domain in Europe, after .de
.de
.de is the country code top-level domain for the Federal Republic of Germany. DENIC does not require specific second-level domains, as it is the case with the .uk domain range which require .co.uk domain for example.The name is based on the first two letters of the German name for Germany...
and .uk
.uk
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. , it is the fourth most popular top-level domain worldwide , with over 9.5 million registrations....
, and is the seventh largest internationally.
Bob Parsons
Bob Parsons
Bob Parsons is an American entrepreneur. He is the CEO and founder of The Go Daddy Group, Inc., a family of companies comprising three ICANN-accredited domain name registrars, including flagship registrar GoDaddy.com, reseller registrar Wild West Domains and Blue Razor Domains...
, CEO and co-founder of Go Daddy, criticized the landrush process designed by EURid. Particularly, he condemned the use of shell companies by some registrars. In his blog, he stated "These companies, instead of only registering their real active registrars, created hundreds of new "phantom" registrars." Parsons cited a group of about 400 companies, all with similar address and contact information based in New York, each registered as an LLC
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
; in his opinion, these were phantom registrars "created to hijack the .EU landrush."
These "phantom" registrars effectively had hundreds of opportunities of registering a domain whereas a genuine registrar effectively only had one opportunity to register the same domain. Thus some registrants were crowded out of the .eu landrush process and many generic .eu domain names are now owned by the companies using these "phantom" registrars.
Patrik Lindén, spokesman for EURid, denied the allegations by Parsons, stating that "[EURid] verified that each registrar was an individual legal entity. Each had to sign an agreement with us, and prepay €10,000." Parsons didn't dispute that each registrar was a separate legal entity, but noted that creating such entities was trivial: "Mr. Linden seemed proud that the EURid registry verified that each applicant was a legal entity before it was accredited. Take a moment and think about what that means. You can form a “legal entity” for $50 – an LLC – and you are good to go. Is that what we want a registry to do? Don’t we want them instead to make sure that the organization it allows to provide end-users with its domain names – especially Europe’s very own domain name – are actually in the domain name registration business?"
The EURid organisation investigated some allegations of abuse, and in July 2006 announced the suspension of over 74,000 domain names and that they were suing 400 registrars for breach of contract. The status of the domains was changed from ACTIVE to ON-HOLD. This meant that the domains could not be moved or have their ownership changed. The registrars also lost their access to the EURid registration database meaning that they could no longer register .eu domain names. The legal action relates to the practice of Domain name warehousing
Domain name warehousing
Domain name warehousing is the common practice of registrars obtaining control of domain names with the intent to hold or “warehouse” names for their use and/or profit...
, whereby large numbers of domain names are registered, often by registrars, with the intention of subsequently selling them on to third parties. EURid rules state that applications for domains can only be made after a legitimate application has been made to a registrar. The 74,000 applications were made in the name of only three Cyprus registered companies— Ovidio Ltd, Fausto Ltd and Gabino Ltd.
The affected registrars, joined in the action by the affected registrants obtained a provisional order from the Court of First Instance in Brussels, Belgium on 27 September 2006. The court ordered EURid to release the blocked domain names or else pay a fine of €25000 per hour for each affected domain name. EURid complied with the court order and changed the status of the domains from ON HOLD to ACTIVE and restored EURid registration database access to the affected registrars.
The main legal action, that of EURid seeking the registrar agreements between EURid and the registrars in question to be dissolved has still to be heard.
Use by the European Union institutions
The second-level domainSecond-level domain
In the Domain Name System hierarchy, a second-level domain is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain . For example, in example.com, example is the second-level domain of the .com TLD....
.europa.eu has been reserved for EU institution sites, with institutions and agencies making the switch from .eu.int to .europa.eu domains on the Europe day of 9 May 2006. The European Central Bank
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...
is however not under the "Europa umbrella" due to its political independence, and uses only ECB.int, but ecb.europa.eu is an alias.
Actual use
The main users of .eu domains are websites with pan-European or cross-border intentions and audiences. It is often used to emphasise the 'European identity' of a website, as opposed to the website having a strictly national ccTLD or global "dotcom" nature. Alternative (opportunisticDomain hack
A domain hack is an unconventional domain name that combines domain levels, especially the top-level domain , to spell out the full "name" or title of the domain. Examples include del.icio.us , goo.gl and fold.it...
) uses include Basque webpages (as the initial letters of Euskadi or the language Euskara) and Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n, Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, or Galician personal sites, as eu is the equivalent of the English pronoun 'I' in those languages.
In most countries of the EU, the national ccTLDs have the major share of the market with the remainder spread over .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
/.net
.net
The domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
/.org
.org
The domain name org is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System used in the Internet. The name is derived from organization....
/.info
.info
The domain name info is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet, The name is derived from information indicating that the domain is intended for informative Internet resources, although registration requirements do not prescribe any theme orientation.The info TLD was...
/.biz
.biz
biz is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for registration of domains to be used by businesses...
. As a result of this, .eu has had an uphill battle to gain a significant share of these national markets. The dominant players tend to be the national ccTLD and .com. The other TLDs such as .net
.net
The domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
, .org
.org
The domain name org is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System used in the Internet. The name is derived from organization....
and to a lesser extent .info
.info
The domain name info is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet, The name is derived from information indicating that the domain is intended for informative Internet resources, although registration requirements do not prescribe any theme orientation.The info TLD was...
and .biz
.biz
biz is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for registration of domains to be used by businesses...
have progressively smaller shares of these national markets.
Over one year after the launch of .eu (5 July 2007), the number of .de
.de
.de is the country code top-level domain for the Federal Republic of Germany. DENIC does not require specific second-level domains, as it is the case with the .uk domain range which require .co.uk domain for example.The name is based on the first two letters of the German name for Germany...
domains registered was 11,079,557 according to the German .de registry's statistics page, while number of German owned .eu domains according to EURid's statistics page was 796,561. The number of .uk
.uk
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. , it is the fourth most popular top-level domain worldwide , with over 9.5 million registrations....
domains registered was 6,038,732 according to .uk registry Nominet's statistics page. The number of apparently UK owned .eu domains was 344,584.
Parking and redirects
- Many domain registrants use their .eu website as a web portal containing a list of their national websites with national ccTLDs. (example: www.sony.eu)
- Other registrants have registered a .eu domain name to protect the brand name of their main website or domain, and redirect visitors to their pre-existing national ccTLD or .com website. (example: www.champagne.eu)
- Many .eu websites are simply parking pages with Pay Per ClickPay per clickPay per click is an Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher when the ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market...
advertisements. ISPs and web hosters will often point unused domains to a parking webpage with PPC advertising.
- Many apparently active .eu websites are really aliases for existing the national ccTLD or .com websites.
- Domain name speculationDomain name speculationDomain name speculation is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring Internet domain names with the intent of selling them later for a profit....
, Domain name warehousingDomain name warehousingDomain name warehousing is the common practice of registrars obtaining control of domain names with the intent to hold or “warehouse” names for their use and/or profit...
and cybersquattingCybersquattingCybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...
are always features of the launch of any new TLD; however, this was more widespread in the case of the .eu launch, as seen below.
According to page 20 of EURid
EURid
EURid vzw/asbl is a non-profit organisation established on 8 April 2003 by the European Commission as the domain name registry to operate the new .eu top-level domain....
's Annual Report for 2006, the breakdown of .eu domain ownership figures on 31 December 2006 was:
- Registrants with more than 10,000 domains: 6
- Registrants with 5,000-9,999 domains: 18
- Registrants with 1,000-4,999 domains: 64
- Registrants with 100-999 domains: 1,257
- Registrants with 10-99 domains: 20,886
- Registrants with 6-9 domains: 22,933
- Registrants with 5 domains: 13,200 - (66,000 domains)
- Registrants with 4 domains: 23,007 - (92,028 domains)
- Registrants with 3 domains: 42,887 - (128,661 domains)
- Registrants with 2 domains: 115,543 - (231,086 domains)
- Registrants with 1 domain: 610,679
The number of registrants with five domains or fewer registered in .eu ccTLD was, according to these statistics, 805,316. These registrants accounted for 1,128,454 domains out of 2,444,947 .eu domains registered as of 31 December 2006. These registrations, typically those of individuals and companies protecting their brand, only represent 46% of the number of registered .eu domains.
It had been actively targeted during the Sunrise period by speculators using fast track Benelux trademarks to create prior rights on various high value generic terms and during the landrush by speculators using EU front companies in the UK and Cyprus to register large numbers of domains. While speculative activity occurred with the launch of other domains, it was the scale of the activity that called into question the competence of EURid in protecting the integrity of eu ccTLD.
The number of .eu domain registrations during the year after the landrush 7 April 2006 to 6 April 2007 seems to have peaked at approximately 2.6 million .eu domains. The market adjustment that follows a landrush in any domain name extension ensures that the number of registered domains will fall as many speculative domain registrations that failed to be resold will not be renewed. This is sometimes referred to as the Junk Dump. On the morning of 7 April 2007, the number of active .eu domains stood at 2,590,160 with approximately 15,000 domains having been deleted since 5 April 2007.
Approximately 1.5 million .eu domains were up for renewal in April 2007. The EURid registry software is based on the DNS. be software and domains are physically renewed at the end of the month of their anniversary of registration. This process differs from more sophisticated registries like that of .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
TLD
TLD
TLD is a three-letter initialism that may stand for:* Top-level domain, the last part of an Internet domain name* Tag Library Descriptor, an XML document that maps JSP tags to their handlers or associated files...
and other ccTLDs that operate on a daily basis. As with any post-landrush phase, an extension shrinks as the Junk Dump takes effect.
The extent of the shrinkage of .eu ccTLD is difficult to estimate because EURid does not publish detailed statistics on the number of new domains registered each day. Instead it provides only a single figure for the number of active domains. The number of new registrations are combined with numbers of domains registered. Approximately 250,000 .eu domains were either deleted or moved into quarantine by 30 April.
External links
- EURid - Registry for .eu
- IANA .eu whois information
- Domain registration regulations, policies, and terms, and other related documents
- EURid registration status report, including breakdown of registrations by country
- PWC Belgium's validation service for Eurid
- EU to launch its own web domain (BBC)
- No .eu domain for the Swiss (and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) (The Register)
- ".eu": A New Internet Top Level Domain (EU)
- ADR Decisions Wiki providing texts of Ovidio/Fausto/Gabino court order and details on litigation
- EURid blocks 10,000 .EU names