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81,000 UK-Owned .EU Domains Suspended As Brexit Transition Ends (zdnet.com) 201

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Tens of thousands of website owners who are based in the UK might have started the year with an unpleasant surprise: Eurid, the registry manager of .eu domain names, has suspended .eu domain names registered by UK citizens as a result of the regulatory changes caused by Brexit. Suspended domain names can no longer support a website or service like email, and owners now have three months to prove their right to run a .eu domain. This means updating contact data to transfer the .eu domain to an EU-subsidiary outside the UK; or declaring citizenship or residence of an EU member state.

Domain names will be re-instated as soon as contact data is updated, said Eurid -- but only for the next few months. Those who, after 31st March 2021, still haven't demonstrated their eligibility will see their domain name withdrawn, and made available again for general registration from January 2022 if no action is taken by then. Eurid said 81,000 domains, from 50,000 users, have been suspended. Eurid's suspension of UK domains comes after a series of mixed signals from the European Commission, which decides on the rules that guide the registration of .eu domains. EU regulations currently stipulate that .eu websites can only be allocated to EU citizens -- regardless of their place of residence -- as well as non-EU citizens and organizations established in a member state. In other words, once Brexit happened, UK-based .eu domains owned by UK citizens suddenly became non-EU websites hosted in a non-EU country.

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81,000 UK-Owned .EU Domains Suspended As Brexit Transition Ends

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  • There will be a lot of those.

    • Not really forgotten things, at least not at the beginning. It seems the new agreement made between the EU and BoJo didn't bother to ensure the .eu TLD owners in the UK would keep it after leaving.
  • Seems fair (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @04:00PM (#60900566) Homepage
    British guy here - seems fair enough to me. Rule is clear, people and businesses have had four years to prepare...seems reasonable.

    Would like to do the same for .co.uk and in fact all the national ones personally, including .me and .co.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ewibble ( 1655195 )

      Seems stupid to me, you have a business people go to that site and expect it to work and now don't maybe they store a contact/bookmark more than 4 years old and for the pettiness now people can't contact people, maybe people will set up fraudulent sites once the they are gone.

      I kind of agree with domains in a country should be in that country but those times are gone. Maybe new registrations should have to belong to the country but needlessly breaking 81,000 domains is just petty, or do it when they go to r

      • Except switching to a hoster in the EU is enough.

        • This means updating contact data to transfer the .eu domain to an EU-subsidiary outside the UK; or declaring citizenship or residence of an EU member state.

          That doesn't sound that simple, I am not quite sure what needs to be done to have an EU-subsidary, but if you are correct why do it in the first place apart from being slightly annoying.

          • No you do not need a subsidiary. What you need is an EU based service that will be the "registered office" for you. They are sort of like a mail drop, can sign receipts for legal notices, etc. You then go about and implement and run your .eu website from somewhere else in the world. If some legal thing needs your attention your service gets in touch.
        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Except switching to a hoster in the EU is enough.

          No, you either need to be a citizen of an EU country, live in an EU country, or have a satellite office in an EU country. Businesses likely would have an EU subsidiary in another country and need to transfer ownership to the subsidiary. UK citizens need to show residency in the EU by changing their contact address to their EU address.

          Of course, if you're using something like GoDaddy which owns the domain, you can certainly have them move their hosting to an E

      • Every IT person for those 81000 domains should be fired. If it's personal, then you should have been paying attention. Heck, where were all the people trying to sell the UK domain name to the people who had EU domain names? Sounds like a huge business opportunity.

        This transition should have taken place at least a year ago. If you waited, it's on the company/domain owner. This was like watching a glacier run into you for the last few years, and then at the last moment when it falls people complain.

        • I would think that quite many have several domain names. Like we have several customers who have .com, .fi and .eu domain names all pointing to one location.

        • by malkavian ( 9512 )

          Why? I owned one, and when the day came, it was no longer any use. I did pay attention, and I knew it was going to happen (not that the notices sent by Eurid were any good; they looked like poor phish attempts; it's only because I already knew what they were talking about was true that I even entertained reading them in entirety).
          All my hosting is now based on other domains. There just wasn't much point doing anything about any of the .eu domains I had, simply because I knew they'd time out, and someone

      • Re:Seems fair (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @05:46PM (#60900954) Homepage Journal

        It's not petty, it's doing exactly what the UK asked for. We wanted separation, loss of membership benefits, fewer freedoms etc.

        Or at least some small minority of us did, and somehow they seem to be the only ones that matter now.

      • Brexit is a big deal. I'm sure BoJo and his folks thought long and hard about these technical details.
      • Brexit means Brexit, lol

      • I kind of agree with domains in a country should be in that country but those times are gone.

        Or maybe those times are coming back? Isn't that what all of this is about? Enforcing borders & boundaries, asserting jurisdiction over people and industry, reigning in "clouds" that abstract location away. If it's petty, it's no more petty than the ideology of "America First!!" as a whole. (Suit to your own nationality of course)

  • I didn't receive an email about my .eu domain name.

    • by malkavian ( 9512 )

      Spamcatcher may have filtered it out. The notices I got looked exactly like a poor phish attempt. I couldn't have done a worse notification job if I'd tried.

  • by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @04:07PM (#60900602) Journal

    Going to be great when the spammers and malware C2 guys get in on grabbing up all these domains that are probably in peoples various trust list and have 'good history' associated with them.

    thanks EU!

    • Yes - it would make sense to my mind if the EU permanently suspended/retired them, I would not be surprised if most of them were purchased simply to ensure that they could not be used anyway.
    • They will be available for reassignment in around 361 days, time for people to get used to them being gone.
      I imagine most .eu domain holders will reassign them to entities in the EU, and if that is not possible then they don't really have much right to exist anyway.
      Speaking for myself, I have only run across one or two .eu domains anyway. Most organisations use .com.

  • Transition before you're forced to.

  • by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @04:30PM (#60900698)
    they are idiots and we idiots are offended by their idiocy.
  • Why do Nations and Businesses look like children when they get upset?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      > Why do Nations and Businesses look like children when they get upset?

      Don't hit, don't cheat, don't steal. Only children and nation states need constant reminders that these behaviors are not OK. OK, and psychopaths, but I repeat myself.

    • Why do Nations and Businesses look like children when they get upset?

      Nations? People. One in the US and one in the UK, currently.

  • by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @04:41PM (#60900730) Journal
    And Nigel Cummings and Boris Johnson will be the first ones hosting sites with it.
  • Oh please (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @04:47PM (#60900760)

    There are already multiple foreign entities from outside the EU holding .eu domains via e-residency in Estonia:

    https://e-resident.gov.ee/ [e-resident.gov.ee]

    Apparently the EU is going so far as to single out those who attempt e-residency from the UK to prevent them from continuing to hold .eu domains; meanwhile, someone from the United States can still use this loophole.

    Petty, through and through.

    • by r2kordmaa ( 1163933 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @04:54PM (#60900796)
      I don't think EU gets to single out anyone using this, e-residency is offered by Estonia, EU doesn't really get a say in it. But yeah, it's an obvious solution to get a digital presence in EU quick and easy. Estonia does keep an eye on what their e-residency is used for though, they can and will take it away if you try to abuse it for criminal activity or some such.
      • "Estonia does keep an eye on what their e-residency is used for though" After having lost a crazy amount of money (relative, I know), I can assure you that Estonia won't keep an eye on anything. It is a "crime-r-us" place. What I have seen there is a total breakdown of any government accountability. It is totally unbelievable and insane. I won't bother you with details of my case, but take this as a start: https://www.computerweekly.com... [computerweekly.com]
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      E residency has genuine responsibilities and benefits for Estonia. It's not trivial to get either. It's not a loophole.

      • by malkavian ( 9512 )

        Yep, looked into that a while back.. I was interested in the early potential to have some citizens of the UK eligible to maintain their EU credentials.
        I, like you, am pretty sad about the whole mess.

  • by Joe2020 ( 6760092 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @05:41PM (#60900942)

    https://www.good-bye.eu/ [good-bye.eu]
    http://www.fuck.eu/ [www.fuck.eu]

    Don't judge me, I'm just being the messenger ...

  • by TeknoHog ( 164938 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @06:50PM (#60901144) Homepage Journal
    Let them keep their domain names, but replace ".eu" with ".ewww". Isn't that how the UK thinks about the EU anyway?
    • by malkavian ( 9512 )

      Lots of the UK looked very favourably on the EU (and still do). I'm one of those.
      I've got family in France that I was hoping to move closer to when I retired, and that's now looking like it may not really be an option anymore.
      There were a very small amount of very noisy people who hated the EU, and lots of very vocal people who believed that anyone who voted leave was some form of racist (but never actually bothered to check with any of the leavers as to exactly why they wanted to leave; lots had very vali

  • by IonOtter ( 629215 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @08:10PM (#60901362) Homepage

    *UK cries of protest*

    "All the planning charts and provisioning orders have been on display in your local planning department in Brussels for twenty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now."

    *more cries of protest*

    "What do you mean you've never been to Brussels? For heaven's sake England, it's only four mouse clicks away you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that's your own lookout. (more quietly) "I don't know. Apathetic bloody country, I've no sympathy at all."

  • by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @09:32PM (#60901578) Journal

    This is what the brexiteers advocated, what brexit supporters voted for. You've said loudly and persistently for the last four years that you knew exactly what you voted for and dismissed all the warnings as fear mongering.

    Yet somehow, now that things are going wrong, somehow all the consequences are somehow the fault of others.

    Just own your decisions and stop blaming others, stop whinging this isn't what I voted for. It getting so bloody tiresome,

    Well this it, project reality, you voted for it, own your decision.

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