Some Important Changes to .eu Domain Policies

The .eu domain is rather special domain name. Unlike .com, which is global, or .ie which is national, the .eu domain is aimed at a region. The European Union and its citizens. If your business is aimed at the EU market then the .eu domain name is a good match.

So what’s been going on?

The .eu domain is run by EURid under contract to the European Commission. The contract is not open ended, so every few years the contract goes out to tender. And of course, as you might expect, the tender process also gives the EC a chance to update and tweak details of the contract. EURid won the most recent tender and the EC renewed their contract, but the new contract has a few changes.

So what’s changed?

The changes aren’t particularly dramatic and are in line with the kind of policies that many domain registries have been adopting over the past few years.

We suspect that the changes won’t have a tangible impact on many clients, but that in some cases the registry might request extra information or ask you to confirm data. This has already been happening for the last few years, but the new contract clarifies how that works a little.

You can review the new “terms and conditions” on the EURid website here. (They’re available in all the EU official languages including Irish! )

Specifically:

• Explanation that EURid is to perform verification of the registration data and security checks on the domain name registration, before or after delegation of the domain name (section 2);
• The verification of the registration data upon request by EURid is part of the domain name holder’s obligations (section 4);
• Definition of the term “Revocation” (section 1) and the cases in which it can be used (provided that the ground for revocation is not remedied in due time) are listed (section 4);
• Availability, technical and lexical requirements of a domain name have been moved to EURid website;
• Procedures for transferring a domain name have been moved to EURid website.

The new terms and conditions come into effect from October 13th 2022.