.eu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Introduced | 2005 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | EURid |
| Sponsoring organization | European Commission |
| Intended use |  European Union |
| Actual use | The ccTLD and .com domain names are still dominant in EU. Usage increasing but still quite limited. |
| Registration restrictions | Registrants must be located within the EU |
| Structure | Names are registered directly at second level |
| Documents | Commission Regulation (EC) No. 874/2004 |
| Dispute policies | Is similar to UDRP |
| Web site | www.eurid.eu |
.eu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union, and organisations and citizens of EU member states, which was launched on December 7, 2005. Trademark owners were able to submit registrations through a sunrise process (similar to the launch of .info), in an effort to prevent cybersquatting. Full registration started on April 7, 2006.
The TLD is administered by EURid, a consortium consisting of the local ccTLD registry operators of Belgium, Czech Republic,Sweden and Italy.
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[edit] Establishment and Sunrise period
The .eu TLD was approved by ICANN on March 22, 2005[1] and put in the Internet root zone on May 2, 2005.[2] Even though the EU is not a country (it is an intergovernmental and supranational organisation), there are precedents of issuing top-level domains to other entities—e.g. .nato
Registrants with prior rights (trademarks, geographic names, company names...) could apply during the Sunrise Period. The registration needed to be accompanied by documents proving the claim to ownership of a certain name. The decision was then made by PricewaterhouseCoopers Belgium, which had been chosen as the validation agent by EURid. Most companies were able to register their trademarks due to this process.
On February 7, 2006, the registry was opened for company and trade names. In the first 15 minutes, there were 27,949 total applications, and after one hour, 71,235.
[edit] Landrush
On April 7, 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 Daddy and Dotster suffered from long queues and unresponsiveness, allowing people to 'beat the queue' by registering through a registrar that had already processed its queue. As of July 2006 more than 2 million .eu domain names were registered. It is now the third largest domain in Europe, after .de and .uk, and is the seventh largest internationally, catching up fast on .info.
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."[3] 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."[4] 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?"[5]
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.[6] 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.
[edit] Use by the European Union institutions
The second-level domain .europa.eu has been reserved for EU institution sites, with most institutions making the switch from .eu.int to using .europa.eu domains on Europe day, 9 May 2006. Others such as the European Central Bank have switched to .eu.
[edit] Actual Use
The EU contains two of the biggest ccTLDs in the world (.de with over 10 Million domains and .uk with over 5 Million domains registered) and as a result .eu has had an uphill battle to enter this market. It is also competing with .com and the other gTLDs in these countries. Many EU companies and businesses who registered their .eu typically point the domain to their primary website which is often a ccTLD or .com website. Speculation, Domain name warehousing and cybersquatting are always features of the launch of any new TLD and .eu was no different.
[edit] References
- ^ ICANN board approves agreement with EURid. EURid (2005-03-21). Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ Check out our domain name: .eu is now in the internet root. EURid (2005-05-02). Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ Parsons, Bob (2006-04-09). The .EU landrush fiasco. A bumbling registry allows Europe's very own domain name to be highjacked!. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ Keizer, Gregg (2006-04-11). New .EU Domain Name System Irks U.S. Firm. TechWeb Technology News. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ Parsons, Bob (2006-04-12). EURid denies .EU landrush abuse. These guys couldn't spin a top.. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ http://www.eurid.eu/content/view/104/52/lang,en/ News item from EURid announcing suspension of domain names and intention to sue domain name registrars. Retrieved on 26 July 2006.
[edit] External links
- IANA .eu whois information
- EURid - The European Registry of Internet Domain names
- 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
- ADR Decisions Wiki providing texts of Ovidio/Fausto/Gabino court order and details on litigation
