Editing .eu (section)

==History==
{{Infobox EU legislation
|type           = Regulation
|number         = 2019/517
|title          = Regulation (EU) 2019/517 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 on the implementation and functioning of the .eu top-level domain name and amending and repealing Regulation (EC) No 733/2002 and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 874/2004
|madeby         = [[European Parliament]] & [[Council of the European Union|Council]]
|madeunder      =
|OJrefurl       = https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2019.091.01.0025.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2019:091:FULL OJ L 91, 29.3.2019, p. 25–35
|OJref          =
|made           =
|EEA            =  yes
|commenced      =
|implementation =
|CommProp       =
|ESCOpin        =
|ParlOpin       =
|Reports        =
|replaces       = 733/2002, 874/2004 
|amends         = 733/2002
|amendedby      =
|replacedby     =
|status         = Current
}}

===Establishment===
The .eu ccTLD was approved by [[ICANN]] on 22 March 2005<ref name=approval>{{cite web|url=https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2005-03-23-en|title=.EU Update|work=ICANN|date=23 March 2005|access-date=28 November 2019}}</ref> and put in the Internet [[DNS root zone|root zone]] on 2 May 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://eurid.eu/media/filer_public/d3/85/d38538c1-dac5-4e28-a779-cc31b8259697/boek_dot_eu_v05.pdf|title=Check out our domain name: .eu is now in the internet root|work=EURid|date=2 May 2005|access-date=26 June 2006}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Even though the EU is not a country (it is a [[sui generis]] [[Intergovernmental organization|intergovernmental]] and [[Supranational union|supranational]] organisation), it has an [[ISO 3166-1 alpha-2#Exceptional reservations|exceptional reservation in ISO 3166]]. The Commission and ICANN had extended negotiations lasting more than five years to secure its acceptance.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.icann.org/resources/unthemed-pages/liikanen-letter-2000-07-06-en | title = Letter from Erkki Liikanen (EU Commission) to Mike Roberts (CEO, ICANN) regarding .eu Top-Level Domain | date=  6 July 2000 | access-date= 29 November 2019 | publisher = European Commission}}</ref>

''.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.

===Sunrise period===
The [[sunrise period]] 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&nbsp;minutes, there were 27,949 total applications, and after one hour, 71,235.

===Landrush===
On 7 April 2006 at 11&nbsp;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 [[GoDaddy]] 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 was then fourth-largest ccTLD in Europe, after [[.de]], [[.uk]] and [[.nl]], and is one of the largest internationally.

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.

===Stabilisation===

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 [[ccTLD]]s that operate on a daily basis. As with any post-landrush phase, an extension shrinks as the ''Junk Dump'' takes effect.

Over one year after the launch of .eu (5 July 2007), the number of [[.de]] domains registered was 11,079,557 according to the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070629120049/http://www.denic.de/en/domains/statistiken/index.html German .de registry's statistics page], while number of German owned .eu domains according to [https://web.archive.org/web/20070710114305/http://status.eurid.eu/registered.html EURid's statistics page] was 796,561. The number of [[.uk]] domains registered was 6,038,732 according to [http://www.nominet.org.uk/intelligence/statistics/registration/ .uk registry Nominet's statistics page]. The number of apparently UK owned .eu domains was 344,584.

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 2007. In the intervening years the renewal rate has stabilised to approximately 80%, which is above the industry average.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eurid.eu/files/2011_annual_report.pdf|title=Annual Report 2011 - The .eu registry, EURid|work=EURid|date=5 June 2011|access-date=4 October 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202141350/http://www.eurid.eu/files/2011_annual_report.pdf|archive-date=2 December 2012}}</ref>

===Brexit===
On 29 March 2018, as a consequence of [[Brexit|the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union]], it was announced that "as of the withdrawal date, undertakings and organisations that are established in the United Kingdom but not in the EU, and natural persons who reside in the United Kingdom will no longer be eligible to register .eu domain names or, if they are .eu registrants, to renew .eu domain names registered before the withdrawal date".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/notice-stakeholders-withdrawal-united-kingdom-and-eu-rules-eu-domain-names_en|title=Notice to stakeholders: withdrawal of the United Kingdom and EU rules on .eu domain names|publisher=European Commission|language=en|access-date=2018-03-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/30/europe-brexit-eu-domains/|title=UK citizens might lose .EU domains after Brexit|work=Engadget|access-date=2018-04-05|language=en-US}}</ref> The commission announced on 27 April 2018 that it would like to open registration to all EU and EEA citizens, including those living outside the EU.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/commission-proposes-more-flexibility-eu-top-level-domain|title=The Commission proposes more flexibility in the .eu top-level-domain|website=europa.eu|date=2018-04-27|access-date=2018-05-06}}</ref> The Parliament, the council, and the Commission reached an agreement on this in December 2018,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/agreement-new-rules-functioning-eu-top-level-domain|title=Agreement on new rules for the functioning of the .eu top level domain|website=europa.eu|date=2018-12-06|access-date=2019-02-11}}</ref> and the corresponding regulation passed the Parliament on 31 January 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?lang=en&reference=2018/0110(COD)|title=2018/0110(COD): Implementation and functioning of the .eu top level domain name|website=europarl.europa.eu|access-date=2019-02-11}}</ref>

The 317,000 British .eu domain names were subject to [[Brexit negotiations]] because the .eu domain is reserved for European Union use. The .eu Brexit would have occurred on 30 March 2020, in case of no deal,<ref name="ref1">{{cite web | url=http://bfmbusiness.bfmtv.com/hightech/brexit-les-britanniques-n-auront-plus-le-droit-aux-noms-de-domaine-en-eu-1408753.html | title=Brexit: Les Britanniques n'auront plus le droit aux noms de domaine en .eu}}</ref> but had since been postponed to January 2021. The UK-EU free trade deal does not cover .eu domains.<ref>{{Cite web |title=EU-UK Draft Free Trade and Cooperation Agreement|url=https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/draft_eu-uk_trade_and_cooperation_agreement.pdf}}</ref>

The [[Government of the United Kingdom|United Kingdom Government]] released guidance for British citizens regarding .eu domains in October 2020,<ref name=govuk>{{Cite web|title=.eu domain names - what you need to do before the end of the transition period|url=https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-domain-names-what-you-need-to-do-before-the-end-of-the-transition-period|access-date=2020-12-28|website=GOV.UK|language=en}}</ref> and .eu holders with a British address attached have been contacted twice by the domain registry regarding their domains – once in October 2020, once in December 2020.<ref name=brexitnotice/>

British citizens had their .eu domains suspended on 1 January 2021 for six months, and then withdrawn on 1 July 2021 after a grace period to allow EU/EEA citizens to update the registration information to show their non-UK address. From 1 January 2022, they were revoked and made available for registration by other entities.<ref name=brexitnotice>{{Cite web|title=Brexit notice|url=https://eurid.eu/en/register-a-eu-domain/brexit-notice/|access-date=2020-12-28|website=eurid.eu}}{{dead link|date=April 2025}}</ref><ref name="govuk" /> This is the first case of its kind where an institution managing an internet [[top-level domain]] has withdrawn domains ''en masse'' for an entire country.{{cn|date=April 2025}}