REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL On the implementation, functioning and effectiveness of the .eu Top-Level Domain
Date: 2017-12-04
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: Internet address, marketing, non-profit organisation, regulation of telecommunications

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 4.12.2017  COM(2017) 725 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL On the implementation, functioning and effectiveness of the .eu Top-Level Domain  
 
 
BACKGROUND 

1. 
In April 2016, the .eu Top-Level Domain (TLD) celebrated its 10th anniversary. Over the 
past ten years, the .eu country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) has continued to market 
itself as an innovative and modern extension, very much able to both catch up with the 
legacy  TLDs,  which  have  been  in  the  domain  environment  for  three  decades,  and  to 
compete  with  the  new  generic  Top-Level  Domains  (gTLDs)  which  were  introduced  in 
2014. At the end of Q1 2017, the .eu TLD was the 7th largest country code TLD in the 
world.1  With  over  3.7  million  registrations,  the  .eu  TLD  has  established  itself  as  a 
valuable  option  for  any  European  resident  choosing  a  domain  name  for  their  Internet 
presence. 

In line with Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 733/2002 on the implementation of the .eu 
TLD, the Commission is required to submit a report to the European Parliament and the 
Council  one  year  after  the  adoption  of  the  Regulation,  and  every  two  years  thereafter. 
This Report concerns the implementation, functioning, and effectiveness of the .eu TLD 
over  the  past  two  years,  in  particular  during  the  period  from  1st  April  2015  to 
31st March 2017. 

2. 

THE .EU LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND BASIC PRINCIPLES 

The .eu TLD was established by the following legal acts: 

–  Regulation (EC) No 733/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22nd 

April 2002 on the implementation of the .eu TLD (as amended)2; 

–  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  874/2004  of  28th  April  2004  laying  down  public 
policy rules (PPR), concerning the implementation and functions of the .eu TLD, and 
the principles governing registration (as amended).3 

EURid  is  the  current  Registry  operator,  responsible  for the organisation,  administration 
and  management  of  the  .eu  TLD  and  its  variants  in  other  scripts.  It  was  re-awarded  a 
second service concession contract on 12th April 2014, following a call for expression of 
interest and the European Commission Implementing Decision of 11th April 2014.4 

1  

.tk is still excluded from the count due to its special framework and sales model. 

2  Regulation (EC) No 1137/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22nd October 2008 
adapting a number of instruments subject to the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty to 
Council Decision 1999/468/EC with regard to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny — Adaptation to 
the regulatory procedure with scrutiny — Part One (OJ L 311, 21.11.2008, p. 1). 

3  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1654/2005  of  10th  October  2005  (OJ  L  266,  11.10.2005,  p. 35), 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1255/2007  of  25th  October  2007  (OJ  L  282  26.10.2007,  p. 16), 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  560/2009  of  26th  June  (OJ  L  166,  27.6.2009,  p. 3),  Commission 
Regulation (EU) No 516/2015 of 26th March 2015 (OJ L 82, 27.03.2015, p.14). 

4   European Commission Implementing Decision of 11th April 2014 on the designation of the .eu Top-

Level Domain Registry, published in the Official Journal (L109/41) on 12th April 2014. 

 
 
 
                                                 
3. 

REGISTRATION AND USE OF .EU DOMAIN NAMES 

In the period covered by this report, the .eu ccTLD saw a flattening of its growth in line 
with  the  other  European  country  code  TLDs.  During  2016  .eu’s  annual  growth  was 
negative. The total registrations were 3,862,467 at the end of 2015, and 3,760,695 on 31st 
December 2016. Such a decrease in the past year can be attributed to several factors in 
the  Domain  Name  System  (DNS)  landscape  and  beyond  -  such  as  market  saturation, 
increased competitiveness, fewer promotions by those registrars that became involved in 
new  gTLD  registries,  and  in  some  cases  stagnant  economies  -  that  impacted  other 
industry peers as well, but also to the continuous efforts to remove domain names with 
incorrect data from the Whois database5. 

The  renewal  rate  of  .eu  domain  names  remains  at  an  average  of  80%,  which  is  a  very 
healthy rate compared to the industry average of 73%. 

The  .ею  extension  (.eu  in  Cyrillic)  was  launched  on  1st  June  2016.  At  the  end  of  Q1 
2017, there were a little over 2,200 domain names registered under the .ею extension.  

The domain name landscape has changed significantly over the past two years, due to the 
introduction  of  new  gTLDs  (e.g.  .car,  .hotel)  which  followed  the  opening  of  the  gTLD 
space  by  the  Internet  Corporation  for  Assigned  Names  and  Numbers  (ICANN).  At  the 
time  of  drafting  this  report,  over  1200  new  gTLDs  have  been  delegated,  and  it  is 
estimated  that  over  1240  will  be  fully  delegated  and  operational  by  the  end  of  ICANN 
fiscal year 2018 (FY18).6 At present, their registrations account for 25.6 million domain 
names out of 329.3 million registered domains worldwide (142.7 million being registered 
under the cc TLDs).7 

Although  the  new  gTLD  market  has  not  met  expectations,  given  that  user  demand  has 
been much lower than expected, its growth has been higher than that of legacy TLDs. 

Considering  historical  trends  and  the  situation  in  the  market,  the  goal  is  to  maintain  a 
stable,  positive  growth,  and  to  strengthen  actions  towards  making  .eu  and  its  Cyrillic 
variant quality TLDs.  

4. 

INTERNATIONALISED DOMAIN NAMES (IDNS) 

4.1. 

.eu IDNs 

The introduction of IDNs at the top level is a matter that falls within the competence of 
ICANN. On 16th November 2009, ICANN launched the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process8 
to  facilitate  the  introduction  of  Internet  Top  Level  Domain  extensions  representing 
country codes (e.g. .gr, .bg, .eu) using non-Latin characters. 

5     See section 5.6.3 

6   See https://www.icann.org/public-comments/fy18-budget-2017-03-08-en 

7    See  Verisign  Domain 

Industry  Brief,  Q4  2016,  https://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-

names/dnib/index.xhtml#executive-summary 

8   See http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/ 

2 

 
 
                                                 
Based  on  submissions  to  the  Commission  from  Cyprus,  Greece,  and  Bulgaria  with 
regards  their  preferred  versions  of  the  .eu  suffix,  EURid  submitted  an  application  to 
ICANN for the Cyrillic and Greek versions of the .eu TLD on 5th May 2010. Initially, the 
Greek .ευ and Cyrillic .ею strings were deemed to be confusingly similar to the existing 
ASCII  ccTLD  string  (.eu),  therefore  their  introduction  entered  a  lengthy  evaluation 
process.  

While  the  Cyrillic  (.ею)  string  succeeded  in  passing  the  IDN  Fast  Track  Process,  the 
Greek  (.ευ)  string  did  not  pass  the  technical  evaluation  step  on  the  grounds  that  it  is 
‘either visually identical to or visually confusable with at least three ISO 646-BV strings 
“.eu”, “.ev”, and “.ey”’.  

In October 2014, following a request for re-evaluation, the .ευ string was not found to be 
confusingly similar to .ev and .ey, but confusingly similar to .EV and .EY.  

On  23rd  June  2016,  a  working  group  established  to  provide  further  guidance  on  the 
methodology  of  second  string  similarity  review  process,  including  the  interpretation  of 
split  recommendations,  recommended  that  in  case  of  confusing  similarity  with  other 
strings  in  upper  case,  but  not  in  lower  case,  priority  should  be  given  to  the  lower  case 
string.  

At  the  time  of  writing  this  report,  the  option  of  setting  up  another  working  group  to 
introduce the assessment of the measures to mitigate confusing similarity at the registry 
level is being considered.  

5. 

FUNCTIONING OF THE REGISTRY 

5.1. 

The Registry 

EURid  is  a  Europe-wide  non-profit  organisation  with  its  head  office  in  Diegem 
(Belgium)  and  regional  offices  in  Stockholm,  Prague,  and  Pisa.  It  comprises  two 
founding  members  -  DNS  Belgium  (the  .be  registry)  and  the  Istituto  di  Informatica  e 
Telematica (the .it registry) - as well as eight associate members. These are ARNES (the 
.si registry), CZ.NIC (the .cz registry), Business Europe (a confederation of 39 industry-
related federations from 33 countries), ECTA Internet Committee (European Community 
Trademark  Association),  EMOTA  (European  Multi-channel  and  Online  Trade 
Association),  IAB  Europe  (Interactive  Advertising  Bureau),  CECUA  (Confederation  of 
European  Computer  Users),  and  UEAPME  (European  Association  of  Craft,  Small,  and 
Medium-sized  Enterprises).  Marie-Emmanuelle  Haas,  an  intellectual  property  rights 
lawyer, joined as an independent member in 2016.  

The main EURid server sites are located in Amsterdam and in Luxembourg. They both 
have identical equipment. The EURid self-managed servers are in Amsterdam, Ljubljana, 
London, and Prague, while the three Anycast providers - DENIC, NETNOD and DYN - 
have name servers9 across the world. 

9        Name  server  is  a  server  on  the  internet  specialized  in  handling  queries  regarding  the  location  of  a 
domain name's various services. Name servers are a fundamental part of the DNS. They allow using 
domains instead of IP addresses. 

3 

 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
In terms of human resources, there were a total of 50.3 full time employees working in 
EURid’s  four  offices  at  the  end  of  Q1  2017.  Most  of  the  employees  are  within  the 
External Relations team (in charge of providing account management and support in all 
EU languages) and the Technical Department. 

5.2. 

Relations with registrars 

According  to  the  current  Regulations,  the  .eu  Registry  itself  does  not  act  as  Registrar. 
The  top  priority  for  EURid  remains  to  provide  quality  service  to  its  693  accredited 
registrars. The number of accredited registrars has dropped slightly in the last two years – 
there  were  751  at  the  end  of  Q1  2015  –  as  registrar  accounts  continued  to  be 
consolidated, and many big European and worldwide players purchased several smaller 
registrars.  

In  November  2016  the  .eu  Registry  kicked  off  the  Single  Euro  Payment  Area  (SEPA) 
facility  and  the  so-called  post-payment  system,  through  which  registrars  now  have  the 
option to have their transaction fees directly debited to their bank accounts. Furthermore, 
EURid has paid closer attention to registrars with unpaid invoices and, as a consequence, 
has stopped several accounts. 

5.3. 

International Relations 

In the reporting period, the .eu Registry has continued to engage regularly and effectively 
with the Internet ecosystem. That includes: 

  Proactive  participation  in  the  Council  of  European  National  Top  Level  Domain 

Registries (CENTR) meetings and workshops;  

  Participation at the ICANN meetings;  
  Chairmanship of the Strategy and Operating Plan working group of the ICANN 

country code Name Supporting Organisation (ccNSO);  

  Chairmanship of the ccNSO Extended Process Similarity Review Panel (EPSRP) 

 

working group in Q2 2015;  
Involvement  in  the  IANA  Stewardship  Transition  and  ICANN  Accountability 
processes as one of the ccNSO-appointed representatives in the Cross Community 
Working Group;  

  Cooperation with UNESCO and Verisign for the yearly IDN World Report10; 
  Cooperation with ICANN for sharing EURid best practices among registries and 
registrars  in  the  Middle  East  and  Adjoining  Countries  area  (MEAC)  and    the 
Latin America and Caribbean region11;  

  Partnership to hold the Internet Governance Forum at the Scuola S. Anna in Pisa; 
  Launch of  the ‘.eu Academy’ in June 201512;  

10   The  World  IDN  Report  went  digital  in  late  2016  with  an  official  launch  at  the  Internet  Governance 
Forum meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, on 7th December 2016. For the online IDN World Report, see 
www.idnworldreport.eu. For the IGF 2016 workshop, see https://igf2016.sched.com/event/8htA/ws19-
enhancing-linguistic-and-cultural-diversity-in-cyberspace  

11   Both cases included a study on domain marketplaces in the respective regions. For the MEAC Study, 
see  https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/meac-dns-study-26feb16-en.pdf  ,  for  the  LAC  Study, 
see https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/lac-dns-marketplace-study-13mar17-en.pdf  

12       The  initiative has, as  its main  objective,  the  goal of  contributing to the  education of  industry  peers, 
registrars,  and  future  generations  in  the  basics  of  the  Internet,  its  history,  functioning,  and 
marketing/administrative/security/law-related facets.  

4 

 
                                                 
  Hosting  the  annual  European  Dialogue  on  Internet  Governance  (EuroDIG) 
meeting  in  Brussels,  on  9th-10th  June  2016,  in  partnership  with  the  European 
Commission. 

5.4.  Marketing, awareness, and communication activities 

7th  April  2016  marked  .eu’s  tenth  anniversary.  This  milestone  was  celebrated  with  the 
launch of a brand new eurid.eu website, as well as with releasing a special anniversary 
edition of the online magazine, .eu illustrated.13  

Over  the  past  two  years,  EURid  has  developed  multiple  marketing,  awareness,  and 
communication activities in various ways: 

  By  further  strengthening  its  partnership  with  the  accredited  registrars,  in  order  to 
promote  the  .eu  TLD  via  the  Co-funded  Marketing  Programme  and  the  so-called 
Customised  Reduction  Schemes.  Within  the  Co-funded  Marketing  Programme,  52 
and 57 proposals of different nature were submitted in 2015 and 2016 respectively. 
With the Customised Reduction Schemes  (CRS), the Registry introduced a way for 
registrars to benefit from lower registration fees on the basis of their sales volumes, 
an approach that is typical of many other TLD registries. At the time of writing this 
report, 98% of registrations in Q1 2017 were made by the 331 registrars who joined 
the CRS in 2017.  

  By  refining  its  direct  marketing  actions  targeted  at  increasing  .eu  awareness.  2015 
and  2016  initiatives  included  two  yearly  online  display  marketing  campaigns,  the 
participation  in  selected  domain-related  fairs  and  events  across  Europe,  and  the 
continuation of the billboard campaign at Brussels airport. Furthermore, the .eu Web 
Awards became a regular activity in the last two years.  

  By  designing  a  structured  social  media  presence14,  in  addition  to  the  publication  of 

the quarterly and annual reports, and the .eu illustrated bi-yearly magazine.  

5.5. 

Financial situation 

The  Registry  is  an  external  organisation  whose  decisions  are  autonomous,  but  the 
Commission closely scrutinises the financial situation in line with the provisions of the 
legal framework and the Service Concession Contract. Complete, on-the-spot accounting 
reviews are performed by an independent financial auditor. The Commission exercises its 
supervisory  role  by  means  of  reviews  of  the  auditors’  remarks,  bi-yearly  and  annual 
financial  reports,  quarterly  progress  reports,  budget  proposals,  and  strategy  and 
operational plans. Financial matters are regularly discussed with the Registry at bi-yearly 
meetings and service-level meetings. 

To  be  more  competitive  in  the  dynamic  TLD  market,  EURid  launched  the  Customised 
Reduction  Schemes  for  its  registrars,  which  allow  reduced  new  registration  fees 

13   See https://eurid.eu/en/about-us/publications/ 

14   See Facebook (EUregistry), Twitter (@Euregistry), YouTube (Europeanregistry) 

5 

 
 
                                                 
according  to the registrar’s sales volumes.  As of  January  2017, the basic fee for a new 
domain name for those registrars subscribing to the CRS is €1.75. 

The key financial  aspects  of the Registry remained stable in 2015 and 2016.  While the 
revenues of the Registry have been around €13 million for both years, the costs decreased 
significantly down to a little over €11 million at the end of 2016. Consequently, the net 
financial  result  has  been  less  balanced  than  in  previous  years,  with  a  surplus  to  the 
benefit  of  the  European  Union  budget  of  €1,238,723  for  accounting  year  2015  and 
€2,748,873 for 2016. 

The  Commission  regularly  checked  changes  in  the  budgeted  and  actual  costs  of  the 
Registry,  in  particular  costs  relating  to  marketing  (around  €3  million  in  2015  and  €2.7 
million  in  2016),  and  human  resources  (around  €4  million  in  2015  and  €3.9  million  in 
2016).  

At the end of 2016, the Registry maintained five types of financial reserves: depreciation 
(€0.8 million), investments (€0.6 million), social liabilities (€2.7 million), legal liabilities 
(€1.2 million), and working capital (€1 million).  

5.6. 

Business continuity, resilience, and quality 

5.6.1.  Business continuity 

During  2016,  with  the  increased  rise  of  different  cyber  threats,  the  yearly  Business 
Continuity  Exercise  was  evaluated.  As  the  traditional  data  center  switch  has  been 
integrated into normal business operations and is executed regularly during maintenance 
windows, EURid focused on a different field of crisis handling. 

Therefore,  in  H2  2016,  EURid  contracted  an  external  company  to  execute  a  so-called 
Table  Top  eXercise  (TTX).  A  TTX  is  a  scripted  exercise  involving  a  mock  incident, 
during  which  the  entire  crisis  management  process  is  evaluated.  Contrary  to  the  BCP 
exercises  before  2016,  the  TTX  involved  the  entire  crisis  management  team,  including 
Technical  Operations,  Legal,  Communications,  External  Relations,  and  the  General 
Manager.  Although  this  exercise  is  only  on  paper  and  condensed,  it  did  give  a  good 
insight into potential shortcomings.  

Although fewer than planned, due to conflicting resource planning and priorities, EURid 
also executed a number of Disaster Recovery & Recovery Tests (DRRT) during 2016.  

5.6.2. 

Security 

The  .eu  TLD  is  implementing  the  Domain  Name  Security  Extensions  (DNSSEC) 
protocol. The DNSSEC is a protocol to verify the authenticity of the display name server 
responses (websites) up to the Internet root zone in what is called a ‘chain of trust’. A so-
called DNSSEC reduction (€0.02 discount on the domain name fee per correctly-signed 
domain name per month), introduced in 2013, continued to be available to registrars to 
further  support  the  implementation  of  DNSSEC.  At  the  end  of  Q1  2017,  there  were 
357,389 DNSSEC signed .eu domain names. 

6 

 
 
 
 
 
Furthermore, at the company level, in order to provide secure, high-quality services to .eu 
accredited registrars and the general public, EURid has implemented the requirements of 
ISO/IEC 27001, an information security standard set by the International Standardisation 
Organisation. The .eu Registry was granted its ISO/IEC 27001 recertification following 
an audit by BSI, the British Standards Institution, on 28th June 2016. 

5.6.3.  Actions to improve the accuracy of registration data, mitigate abuse of domain 

names and cooperation to fight cybercrime 

The Registry has been applying measures to counter malicious online behaviour with the 
abuse of domain names on a daily basis, including e.g. copyright infringements, phishing 
and cyberattacks including the distribution of malware. Domain names, in particular, are 
checked  against  eligibility  criteria,  and  new  registrations  are  screened  for  suspicious 
patterns or other anomalies 15. Under article 4 of the registrar .eu accreditation agreement, 
registrars must ensure that each domain name holder meets all requirements set forth in 
the  EU  Regulations  and  their  subsequent  amendments,  the  .eu  Registration  Policy,  and 
the .eu Terms and Conditions, as published on the Registry website.  

Improving  the  provision  of  accurate  registration  data  by  registrants  is  an  increasingly 
important tool in preventing and for combatting fraudulent domain name use. With that 
aim,  EURid  launched  the  Whois  Quality  Plan  in  Q1  2014.  In  the  reporting  period,  the 
procedures  to  introduce  a  fast-track  method  for  clear-cut  cases  were  refined.  The  fast 
track procedure is enforced in case of obviously inaccurate registration data, detection of 
patterns in domain name registrations, or suspicion or allegation of abuse. Should this be 
the  case  the  registrant  is  requested  to  provide  evidence  of  the  registration  data  within 
three  days  after  which  the  domain  name  involved  is  suspended.  During  2016,  over 
18,000 domain names were checked, out of which over 9 000 were suspended and over 1 
000 were subsequently withdrawn. 

In addition, the Registry continued to provide regular assistance to law enforcement and 
other  relevant  authorities.  At  the  national  level  in  Belgium,  EURid  upheld  a  regular 
dialogue  with  CERT-EU  and  collaborated  actively  with  authorities  such  as  the  Belgian 
Federal  Ministry  of  Economic  Affairs 
(‘FOD  Economie’),  Belgian  Customs 
(‘Cybersquad’), and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in their fight against illegal activities 
related  to  .eu  domain  names.  The  collaboration  mainly  focused  on  the  selling  of 
counterfeit products while using .eu domain names. At European level, EURid signed a 
MoU  with  EUROPOL  in  December  2016  to  engage  in  joint  efforts  related  to  fighting 
cybercrime,  to  exchange  statistical  data  and  trends  pertaining  to  cybercrime,  and  to 
commit to cooperating on projects designed to combat cybercrime.16 

15  For  the  eligibility  criteria,  see  Article  4(2(b)  of  Regulation  733/2002.  The  Registry  has  the  right  to 
verify the validity of a registration (Article 3 of Regulation 874/2004). The registration policy requires 
the  registrant  to  keep  personal  data  complete  and  accurate,  and  the  email  address  functioning  for 
communication  with  the  Registry,  which  reserves  the  right  to  revoke  the  domain  name  of  a  non-
functioning address. 

16   See 

https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/europol-enhances-cybercrime-and-internet-

security-cooperation-signing-mou-eurid 

7 

 
                                                 
5.7. 

Legal proceedings and disputes concerning domain names 

5.7.1.  Cases before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union 

There were no cases before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European 
Union (CJEU) in the reporting period.  

5.7.2.  Alternative Dispute Resolution procedure 

Domain  name  disputes  may  be  submitted  to  the  Alternative  Dispute  Resolution  (ADR) 
provider – the Prague-based Arbitration Court (‘Czech Arbitration Court’ or ‘CAC’). 

During 2015 a total of 65 new ADR complaints were filed, on average 5 complaints per 
month. In total, 68 ADR disputes were terminated (complaints accepted: 46; complaints 
denied: 5; complaints withdrawn: 2; complaints defective: 14; settlements: 1) 

During 2016 a total of 80 new ADR complaints were filed, a steady average of just over 
6 cases per month. In total, 67 ADR disputes were terminated (complaints accepted: 41; 
complaints  rejected:  9;  complaints  withdrawn:  2;  complaints  defective:  14;  settlements: 
1). 

As  of  1st  June  2016,  disputes  for  .eu  domain  names  within  the  Cyrillic  extension (.ею) 
can be filed. At the end of Q1 2017, no cases were filed with the CAC for .ею. 

5.7.3.  Court proceedings 

In the reporting period, EURid has been a party in the following cases: 

STRANSKY vs. EURid 

On  6th  May  2015  EURid  introduced  IDNA2008  and  homoglyph  bundling,  and 
announced  its  legacy  policy  for  domain  names  that  are  no  longer  compliant  with  these 
new rules. The policy included a phasing-out period of one year. By 6th May 2016), non-
compliant domain names were to have been withdrawn, and could not be re-registered. 
The  expiry  date  of  two  no  longer  compliant  domain  names  (‘fırstrowsports.eu’  and 
‘fırstrow.eu’)  extended  beyond  the  phase  out  date  of  6th  May  2016  (to  28th  February 
2025). 

The  holder  of  both  domain  names  sued  EURid  before  a  court  in  the  Czech  Republic 
regarding one domain name: ‘fırstrowsports.eu’.  

The written judgment was received on 21st November 2016. The official Court decision 
stipulates:  ‘An  obligation  is  being  imposed  on  the  Defendant  (EURid)  to  ensure  the 
operation of the domain name “fırstrowsports.eu” until 28th February 2025, as art. 13 of 
EURid’s terms and conditions does not allow EURid to unilaterally change the rights and 
obligations of the holder,  but  only allows EURid  to apply new rules to any subsequent 
registrations.   

Although the Court’s decision only relates to one domain name, ‘fırstrowsports.eu’, and 
does  not  relate  to  ‘fırstrow.eu’,  EURid  applied  the  Court’s  decision  to  both  domain 
names  and  will  keep  both  active  until  their  expiration  date  on  28th  February  2025  (on 
which date they will be withdrawn). 

As a consequence, this case has been closed. 

8 

 
EURid vs. VAN COLLEM 

On  29th  February  2016  EURid  initiated  court  proceedings  against  two  domain  name 
holders (Nanogenetics Ltd and Citizen Engineering Services Ltd), both having the same 
business address (29 Harley Street, Marylebone, London, W1G 9QR). Both holders had 
registered  approximately  1600  domain  names  via  registrar  IO  Domain  UK  Ltd,  doing 
business as ‘Universal Domains’, with the same address (29 Harley Street, Marylebone, 
London,  W1G  9QR).  It  appears that  more  than 6000  UK  companies  were registered  to 
that  address.  It  would  seem  that  a  Mr.  Van  Collem  claimed  to  represent  both  domain 
name  holders,  and  EURid  has  reason  to  believe  that  Mr.  Van  Collem  is  actually  the 
registrar as well. 

Since  this  registrar  had  an  overdue  balance  of  7,363.50  EUR,  EURid  terminated  its 
accreditation agreement due to breach of contract (after several reminders).  

As  a  consequence  of  the  termination  of  the  registrar’s  contract,  all  domain  holders 
received an automated email notification to look for another registrar of their choice, and 
to transfer their domain names to the chosen registrar. Mr. Van Collem indicated that he 
had selected ‘Lifestyle International BV’ (a Dutch foundation). This company had indeed 
applied for .eu accreditation, but since it never successfully completed the accreditation 
procedure, EURid had not accepted its application.  

EURid  granted  Mr.  Van  Collem  more  than  166  calendar  days  to  transfer  his  domain 
names  (compared  to  the  regular  30-40  quarantine  days  for  any  other  holder  in  similar 
circumstances).  

Since EURid had ‘reserved’ these domain names for Mr. Van Collem without being paid 
for them, it decided to initiate court proceedings in order to ask the Court to declare the 
agreement between EURid and the domain name holder(s) terminated.  

The domain name holders (Nanogenetics Ltd and Citizen Engineering Services Ltd) 

The (Brussels) court hearing took place on 21st February 2017, and in the meantime both 
companies have been dissolved.  

The  judge  decided  to  take  more  time  to  double-check  the  removal  of  both  companies 
from  Companies  House  (UK),  and  thus  to  postpone  his  decision.  EURid  expects  to 
receive an interim decision, in which the judge may or may not re-open the debate.  

EMAS REGISTRATION AND CO2 COMPENSATION 

6. 
On  23rd  May  2012,  EURid  became  the  first  EMAS-certified  registry  in  Europe 
(registration number BE-VL-000016)17. In Q2 2015 EURid completed its re-certification 
process  with  the  revised  Environmental  Declaration  2015-2017,  which  includes  six 
objectives.  The  EMAS  registration  covers  both  the  headquarters  of  EURid  in  Diegem, 
Belgium, and its branch in Pisa, Italy (since Q2 2015). 

17  More  information  on  EURid’s  environmental  commitment  is  available  at:  https://eurid.eu/en/going-

green/ 

9 

 
                                                 
Since  2013,  EURid  has  been  validating  its  CO2  emissions  and,  afterwards,  purchasing 
certified CO2 credits to compensate for them.18 

7. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The .eu TLD model has been implemented successfully.  

Over the last two years, the .eu TLD has been operating in a TLD landscape different to 
the one that it entered when it was launched in 2006. The new gTLDs have completely 
changed the domain name industry. More and more registrars have become involved in 
the management of the new extensions, while the legacy TLD operators have started to 
look  into  options  to  differentiate  their  offerings  and  expand  into  new  business  areas, 
which  might  compensate  for  the  lower  income  coming  from  new  registrations  in  the 
long-term.  

In late 2016, the European Commission launched a Regulatory Fitness and Performance 
Programme  (REFIT)  review  of  the  .eu  Regulations,  to  ensure  that  the  .eu  legal 
framework still serves its intended purpose. It includes a "back-to-back" evaluation and 
impact  assessment.  The  evaluation  will  examine  at  least  the  five  mandatory  evaluation 
criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU added value and it will 
cover  the  implementation  of  the  .eu  legal  framework  across  the  EU,  the  EEA  and 
candidate  countries,  since  the  adoption  of  the  first  Regulation  in  2002.  This  evaluation 
will  form  a  basis  for  the  eventual  future  oriented  impact  assessment,  outlining  policy 
responses  to  identified  challenges,  with  the  possible  adoption  of  concrete  initiatives  in 
2018. 

Multilingualism  continues  to  be  a  primary  goal  both  for  the  .eu  Registry  and  the 
European Commission. It is worth noting that, seven years after EURid’s application for 
the .eu string in Greek, .ευ in Greek has not yet been approved by ICANN on the grounds 
that  it  is  confusingly  similar  with  other  strings.  The  Commission  has  repeatedly  urged 
ICANN to complete this process, and has emphasised that ICANN has not followed the 
same strict policy when clearly confusingly similar new gTLDs have been delegated in 
the recent past.  

The recent proactive Registry support of actions that have the aim to prevent the abuse 
and improve the security and trustworthiness of the .eu domain are considered important 
and will  be further encouraged in a digital environment where the threat and impact of 
cybercrime have significantly increased.  

The  European  Commission  will  continue  its  regular  and  constructive  communication 
flow  with  the  Registry,  both  to  maintain  the  .eu  TLD  at  the  highest  standards  of  DNS, 
and to make it the extension of choice for Europeans. Conclusions on the performance of 
the  .eu  TLD  will  be  drawn  again  in  2018  when  the  results  of  the  ongoing  REFIT 
evaluation will be available. 

18   In  2015,  EURid  assessed  its  CO2  emissions  from  2014  and  purchased  verified  CO2  credits  to 
contribute  to  the  Ecomapuà  project,  which,  among  other  things,  has  the  goal  of  conserving  the  rich 
biodiversity of the Amazon. In 2016 the CO2 emissions of 2015 were off-set by verified CO2 credits 
which contributed to the Dak Rung Hydropower project in Vietnam. 

10 

 
                                                 
ANNEX 

  Statistics .eu against CENTR registries end Q1 2017 

Top 10 CENTR members  
Total registrations Q1 2017 

2.678.107 
3.042.999 
3.052.419 
3.112.786 

3.755.101 

5.520.680 
5.712.185 

10.648.891 

.pl
.it
.fr
.au
.eu
.ru
.nl
.uk
.de
.cn

16.182.858 

20.868.593 

0

5.000.000

10.000.000

15.000.000

20.000.000

25.000.000

 

.eu registrations by quarter till end Q1 2017 

4 000 000

3 500 000

3 000 000

2 500 000

2 000 000

1 500 000

1 000 000

 500 000

6
0
3
Q

7
0
1
Q

7
0
3
Q

8
0
1
Q

8
0
3
Q

9
0
1
Q

9
0
3
Q

0
1
1
Q

0
1
3
Q

1
1
1
Q

1
1
3
Q

2
1
1
Q

2
1
3
Q

3
1
1
Q

3
1
3
Q

4
1
1
Q

4
1
3
Q

5
1
1
Q

5
1
3
Q

6
1
1
Q

6
1
3
Q

7
1
1
Q

11 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Total number of domain names by country of registrant end Q1 2017 

1200000

1000000

800000

600000

400000

200000

0

  Registrar distribution end Q1 2017 

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

12 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  IDN registrations end Q1 2017 

 70 000

 60 000

 50 000

 40 000

 30 000

 20 000

 10 000

9
0
0
2
4
Q

0
1
0
2
2
Q

0
1
0
2
4
Q

1
1
0
2
2
Q

1
1
0
2
4
Q

2
1
0
2
2
Q

2
1
0
2
4
Q

3
1
0
2
2
Q

3
1
0
2
4
Q

4
1
0
2
2
Q

4
1
0
2
4
Q

5
1
0
2
2
Q

5
1
0
2
4
Q

6
1
0
2
2
Q

6
1
0
2
4
Q

4200000

3600000

3000000

2400000

1800000

1200000

600000

0

IDN

Total

13