On the 1st February 2020, Britain left the EU. Whilst Brexit has many implications for businesses, some of them may not be immediately obvious. One of these relates to domain names: following Brexit, if your business has a .eu domain name, you may no longer be able to use that domain. You have until 01 January 2021 to check whether you’re eligible to retain your .eu domain and makes changes if you are not.
Am I Eligible?
If you meet the following requirements, you are eligible to register an EU domain:
- You are a European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) citizen
- You are not an EU or EEA citizen but you live in the EU or EEA
- You are an organisation, business or undertaking that is established in the EU or EEA
You will not be eligible if:
- Your business is established in the UK but not EU/EEA
- You live outside the EU/EEA and are not a citizen
We’ve made this handy infographic to help you understand your eligibility. To download this image, please click here.
What Will Happen If I Don’t Meet the Criteria?
- 01 October 2020 – UK registrants will receive an email from EURid informing them that they will not be able to retain their .eu domain name as of 01 January 2021 unless they can demonstrate compliance with .eu regulatory framework.
- 21 December 2020 – EURid will send another email to UK registrants who did not take action after the first email. This notice states that .eu domains will be withdrawn, meaning it will no longer function.
- 01 January 2021 – any UK registrant who does not meet the eligibility criteria will have their .eu domain withdrawn.
- 01 January 2022 – withdrawn domain names will be revoked and made available for registration by other entities.
What Should I Do Next?
Firstly, you should talk to your local domain registrar and discuss whether you should transfer your website to another domain, e.g. .com, .co.uk or .org. You should also find out whether your contractual agreement provides for any recourse on withdrawal from .eu domains.
You should then decide how to let your customers know about the domain change and think about how to update your search engine optimisation.
Think about all the aspects of your internet presence which require, or are affected by, the loss of a .eu domain. For example, your website, email addresses, VPNs and any trademarks or other intellectual property associated with your .eu domain. You will need to develop a migration plan for these functions.
If you have a second location within the EU, you should obviously use their details for your domain name.
There are other solutions, such as using a proxy registrar for a .eu domain. Or of course, you could branch out into the EU.
If your business will be affected by the .eu domain name transition, call us on +44 203 034 2244 or +1 323 984 8908. Alternately, you can contact us online. We will be happy to help you overcome your IT challenges so that you can focus on what you do best.
Cardonet have been working with businesses for the past twenty years to help them overcome their technological challenges. Our group of highly experienced engineers are available 24/7 to assist and ensure that your IT infrastructure is running seamlessly.
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