REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Assessment of the cooperation of the .eu Registry operator with EUIPO and other Union agencies with a view of combating abusive and speculative domain name registrations, pursuant to Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2019/517
Date: 2020-12-02
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: EU trade mark, European Union Intellectual Property Office, European symbol, Internet address, alternative dispute resolution, fraud, institutional cooperation, non-profit organisation, regulation of telecommunications, small and medium-sized enterprises

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 2.12.2020  COM(2020) 775 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Assessment of the cooperation of the .eu Registry operator with EUIPO and other Union agencies with a view of combating abusive and speculative domain name registrations, pursuant to Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2019/517  
 
 
Table of Contents 
1. 

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 2 

2.  Objectives and methodology ........................................................................................................ 3 

2.1 Objectives ..................................................................................................................................... 3 

2.2 Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 3 

3.  Cooperation between EURid and EUIPO to combat abusive and speculative domain name 
registrations ........................................................................................................................................... 4 

3.1 Early cooperation ........................................................................................................................ 4 

3.2 Recent cooperation ..................................................................................................................... 4 

3.3 Planned activities 2020-22 ......................................................................................................... 5 

3.4 Assessment of the EURid-EUIPO cooperation, and recommendations for improvements ... 5 

4.  Cooperation with other Union bodies and national or international organisations ............... 6 

4.1 Cooperation with Europol .......................................................................................................... 6 

4.2 Collaboration with other bodies ................................................................................................ 7 

5. 

Small and medium-sized enterprises .......................................................................................... 8 

5.1 Registration procedure ............................................................................................................... 8 

5.2 Alternative dispute resolution ................................................................................................... 9 

6.  Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 9 

1 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1. 

Introduction 

The Commission is responsible for the .eu top level domain, which is currently used by 3.6 
million  end-users  in  the  EU1.  The  .eu  domain  was  established  by  Regulation  (EC)  No 
733/2002 and by Commission Regulation (EC) No 874/2004. The acts were repealed recently 
by  Regulation  (EU)  2019/5172,  “the  .eu  Regulation”,  which  entered  into  force  on  18  April 
2019 and will apply from 13 October 2022. 

The  .eu  domain  name  is  operated  by  the  .eu  Registry.  Currently  this  is  EURid,  a  private, 
independent, non-profit organisation, on the basis of a service concession contract concluded 
with the Commission, running until 12 October 2022. The Commission, in accordance with 
Article  19(2)  of  the  .eu  Regulation  will  select  and  enter  into  a  contract  with  the  entity  that 
will act as the .eu Registry as from 13 October 2022. 

The .eu Regulation requires the Registry to adopt policies and implement measures to avoid 
speculative  and  abusive  registration  of  domain  names.3  ‘Speculative  and  abusive 
registration’ is defined as registering a domain name that is identical or confusingly similar 
to a name for which a right is recognised or established by national and/or Union law, which: 
(a) has been registered by its holder with no right or legitimate interest associated with it; or 
(b) has been registered or is being used in bad faith4.  

Protected  rights  at  EU  level  include,  inter  alia,  registered  national  and  community 
trademarks,  geographical  indications  and  designations  of  origin,  as  well  as  the  following 
nationally-protected intellectual property rights (IPR):  

trade names 

  unregistered trademarks 
 
  business identifiers 
  company names 
 
family names 
  distinctive titles of protected literary and artistic works.5  

Speculative and abusive  .eu registrations must be revoked, using the .eu  alternative dispute 
resolution (ADR) process or a judicial procedure initiated by the rightsholders. 

The  .eu  Regulation  requires  the  Commission  to  promote  cooperation  between  the  .eu 
Registry,  the  European  Intellectual  Property  Office  (EUIPO)  and  other  Union  bodies,  to 
combat speculative and abusive registrations of domain names, including cybersquatting, and 

1  EURid’s  quarterly  report  (Q2  2020):  https://eurid.eu/media/filer_public/43/77/43778dd5-5afa-42ce-8213-

0c8d661ec26f/quarterly_q22020.pdf 

2      Regulation  (EU)  2019/517    on  the  implementation  and  functioning  of  the  .eu  top-level  domain  name  and 
      repealing Regulation (EC) No 733/2002 and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 (OJ L 91, 
      29.3.2019, p.25). 
3   See Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 and Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2019/517. 
4   See Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004 and Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/517. 
5  See Article 10(1) of Regulation (EC) No 874/2004. 

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provide  simplified  administrative  procedures,  in  particular  for  small  and  medium-sized 
enterprises (SMEs).6  

The  .eu  Regulation  also  requires  the  Commission,  by  30  June  2020,  to  evaluate  this 
cooperation  and  assess  whether  and  how  the  Registry  should  set  up  simpler  administrative 
procedures  for  SMEs.7  The  Commission  should  subsequently  report  to  the  European 
Parliament  and  the  Council  about  its  assessment.8  The  Commission  prepared  this  report  to 
fulfil this legal obligation. 

2.  Objectives and methodology 

2.1 Objectives  

The Domain Name System (DNS) supports an accessible, functional and trustworthy internet, 
but  is  not  immune  to  abuse.  The  .eu  domain  name  is  no  exception,  so  the  .eu  Regulations 
require policies and measures to be implemented to prevent abusive and speculative domain 
name registrations. 

This report: 

  evaluates  the  cooperation  between  the  .eu  Registry  (EURid)  and  EUIPO  and  other 
Union  bodies  or  international  organisations  to  tackle  speculative  and  abusive 
registrations;  

  assesses whether and how this cooperation could be improved to maintain a secure, 

transparent and trustworthy .eu online environment;  

 

 

takes into account current industry practice in the field;  

identifies  possible  aspects  of  the  .eu  registration  procedure,  or  other  domain  name 
management procedures (such as alternative dispute resolution) that could usefully be 
simplified  to  facilitate  domain  name  registrations  and  increase  protection  for 
rightsholders, to the benefit of SMEs. 

2.2 Methodology  

This  report  is  based  on  both  the  Commission’s assessment  and  the  findings  of  an  external 
study conducted between December 2019 and April 2020 evaluating practices for combating 
speculative and abusive domain name registrations9. 

The  authors  of  the  study  conducted  an  extensive  review  of  relevant  industry  reports  and 
collected and analysed data and information from multiple stakeholders involved in fighting 
speculative/abusive  registration.  In  particular,  they  conducted  a  market  analysis  and  a 
comparison between the .eu Registry practices and other domain name registries, using both 
qualitative and quantitative methods. This included assessing administrative procedures that 

6  See Recital 7 of Regulation (EU) 2019/517. 
7  See Article 16(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/517. 
8  See Article 16(4) of Regulation (EU) 2019/517. 
9  The study can be found here: https://dx.publications.europa.eu/10.2759/428574 

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would  allow  SMEs  to  effectively  combat  speculative  and  abusive  registrations  in  the  .eu 
domain name.  

This  report  also  takes  into  consideration  the  formal  reporting  by  the  .eu  Registry  to  the 
Commission10 and the information gathered by the Commission during the regular exchanges 
with the Registry as part of its supervisory duties. 

3.  Cooperation  between  EURid  and  EUIPO  to  combat  abusive 

and speculative domain name registrations 

3.1 Early cooperation  

The cooperation between EURid and EUIPO was first formalised on 23 June 2016 in a letter 
of collaboration.11 Its objective was to combat fraudulent activities, following evidence that 
third parties systematically browsed EUIPO’s database seeking new EU Trade Mark (EUTM) 
applications and made speculative or abusive .eu domain name registrations for these terms, a 
practice  known  as  cybersquatting.  The  two  parties  agreed  to  implement  changes  in  the 
system with the aim of raising EUTM holders’ awareness and reducing cybersquatting. 

During  the  early  cooperation  stages  between  EURid  and  EUIPO,  the  focus  was  on  sharing 
information and cooperating in areas of mutual interest. EURid notably forwarded suspicious 
invoices to EUIPO and both organisations added links on their respective portals and tools, 
including a link to a trademark search tool on EURid’s website; a link to EUIPO’s website on 
the .eu WHOIS webpage; and a link to the .eu availability search tool in the EUTM e-filing 
tool. 

3.2 Recent cooperation  

On  20  May  2019  EURid  and  EUIPO  extended  their  cooperation  by  signing  a  first 
collaboration agreement.12 Two new functionalities were made available to EUTM holders:  

  an availability check for the corresponding domain name when they file with EUTM; 

  a notification (alert) when a domain name corresponding to an EUTM is registered. 

Availability check 

Added  to  the  EUTM  e-filing  tool,  this  function  directly  informs  users  –  as  soon  as  they 
complete their trademark filing – whether their trademark is available as a .eu domain name. 
This  way,  they  can  choose  immediately  to  register  the  domain  name  before  their  EUTM 
application is published. 

Alerts 

10  The  latest  public  report  from  EURid  is  available  here:  https://eurid.eu/en/news/2019-annual-report/.  The 
Commission  also  issued  a  report  to  the  European  Parliament  on  the  implementation,  functioning  and 
effectiveness  of  the  .eu  Top-Level  Domain  from  April  2017  to  April  2019,  accessible  at  https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2020%3A0063%3AFIN  

11  https://eurid.eu/en/news/eurid-and-the-euipo-sign-letter-of-collaboration/  
12   https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/news/-/action/view/5140548   

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EUTM holders also have the option to receive an alert when a .eu domain name identical to 
their trademark is registered – but only if they expressly opt in. The system is based on the 
daily  sending  by  EUIPO  of  an  up-to-date  list  of EUTM  applications  to  EURid  through  the 
EUIPO-download  service13.  Each  new  .eu  domain  name  registration  is checked  by  EURid 
against this list, and if a match occurs, EUIPO is notified and users receive an alert through 
their EUIPO User Area. 

3.3 Planned activities 2020-22 

Under  their  joint  work  programme  for  2020-2214,  EUIPO  and  EURid  will  explore  the 
possibility  of  implementing  a  reciprocal  process  when  a  .eu  domain  name  is  registered, 
allowing  domain  name  holders  to  see  if  a  trademark  with  a  similar  name  is  available  at 
EUIPO.  

Additionally, both organisations will work on a joint study on application behaviour, to see 
whether  trademarks  or  domain  names  are  registered  first.  The  study  will  help  them  tackle 
fraudulent domain names and registrations made in bad faith.  

Work will also begin on a feasibility study to create a tool to inform users of the availability 
of  the  terms  they  are  searching  for  both  as  a  trademark  and  a  domain  name.  EUIPO  and 
EURid will also explore the possibility of extending the current availability check based on 
“identical search”15 to “similar search”, to find possible matches in the EURid database after 
an online EUTM application has been filed. 

The  work  programme  also  contains  a  link  to  the  EUIPO  SME  programme,  which  will 
include initiatives such as: 

  a  chatbot  providing  information  on  business  issues  useful  to  SMEs,  starting  with 

intellectual property matters; 

  discovery  guides  providing  support  and  guidance  to  SMEs  wanting  to  register  an 

EUTM, and flagging the importance of domain names;  

  webinars aimed at SMEs and multiplier organisations. 

3.4  Assessment  of  the  EURid-EUIPO  cooperation,  and  recommendations  for 
improvements 

EURid  and  EUIPO  have  achieved  a  fruitful  cooperation  in  combatting  speculative  and 
abusive  registrations  of  domain  names,  including  cybersquatting,  and  future  action  planned 
by  the  two  organisations  is  expected  to  help  further  reduce  speculative  and  abusive 
registrations and improve support to SMEs. 

In  the  next  stage  of  their  cooperation,  the  two  organisations  should  seek  to  simplify  the 
procedure for the .eu domain name and EUTM registration and foster awareness of the link 

13   The  EUIPO-Download  service  consists  of  a  database  that  can  be  downloaded  from  EUIPO’s  server  and 
integrated  in  the  user’s  internal  systems.  It  contains  data  on  all  EUTMs,  Resource  Cataloguing  and 
Distribution System (RCDs) and International Registrations (IRs) entered into the EUIPO internal database. 

14   https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/guest/news/-/action/view/5772664   
15  The results returned to users are those based on an almost exact match in EURid’s database, with only slight 

variations (such as hyphens and numbers). 

5 

 
 
                                                           
between domain names and trademarks. Any tool or measure they propose should be simple, 
user-friendly, accessible and effective for SMEs. 

Specifically, they could make the following improvements: 

  More  awareness-raising  and  knowledge-building  activities,  to  make  rightsholders  and 
.eu domain name holders aware of the existing measures and tools and increase their use. 
Examples  include  training  courses  and  webinars,  especially  targeting  SMEs.  It  will  be 
important  to  gather  feedback  from  SMEs,  to  understand  their  needs  and  improve 
awareness-raising activities. 

  Provide more information to users when they file an EUTM application. For example, 
along  with  the  final  receipt  and  official  record  of  the  application,  EUIPO  could  supply 
applicants with documents containing more information on .eu domain names and ways 
to protect IPR. 

 

Improve existing tools: 

o  Full  deployment  of  the  availability  check  and  alert  functionalities  will  require 
further technical improvements. These functions offer a simple and effective way 
for  rightsholders,  including  SMEs,  to  reserve  the  domain  names  matching  their 
trademarks or act on abusive/speculative registrations. 

o  Generalise  the  use  of  the  alert  system.  The  statistics  provided  by  EURid  and 
EUIPO show that there is an important gap between the number of matches found 
between EUTM and .eu domain name registrations and the number of alerts sent to 
EUTM holders. There is a need to raise the level of awareness of this functionality 
and increase its use. 

o  Investigate the possibilities to extend existing tools on availability check and alert 

functionalities to cover geographical indications. 

  Develop new tools to facilitate the simultaneous registration of EUTM and .eu domain 

names: 

o  Develop a joint search tool that enables users to check whether terms are available 

both as an EUTM and a .eu domain name. 

o  Assess the possibility of EUIPO becoming a .eu accredited registrar and integrating 
the  .eu  domain  name  registration  with  EUTM  applications.  This  would  offer 
rightsholders the possibility of one-stop registration. 

The  Commission  will  follow  up  on  these  recommendations  with  EURid  and  EUIPO  and 
closely  follow how their cooperation develops  and how effective the measures they take to 
combat speculative and abusive registrations are. In doing so, it will pay particular attention 
to the measures adopted for SMEs. 

6 

 
 
 
 
4.  Cooperation  with  other  Union  bodies  and  national  or 

international organisations  

4.1 Cooperation with Europol 

EURid and Europol have in place a memorandum of understanding16, signed in 2016. Under 
this agreement, they are exchanging information on suspicious .eu domain names, including 
domains identified by EURid’s Abuse Prevention and Early Warning System (APEWS)17. 

Cooperation  between  EURid  and  Europol  could  be  further  strengthened,  starting  with 
formalising these arrangements. This would include: 

formalising the scope and the commitments of each party;  
identifying contact points and communication channels on both sides;  

 
 
  describing  the  actions  each  party  must  take  when  a  suspicious  domain  name  is 

identified;  

  determining follow-up and reporting mechanisms. 

The  two  organisations  could  also  carry  out  joint  awareness-raising  and  knowledge-building 
activities  to  inform  the  general  public  and  train  cybersecurity  experts  and  law  enforcement 
officers on cybercrime threats linked to speculative and abusive domain name registrations, 
and available counter-measures. Specifically, they could develop intellectual property-related 
case studies to educate rightsholders and their representatives, with a focus on SMEs.  

4.2 Collaboration with other bodies 

EURid collaborates with international and European authorities and organisations to prevent 
online illegal activities. These include, among others:  

  Belgian Customs (against counterfeit websites); 
  Belgian Prosecutors and law enforcement agencies (against cybercrime); 
  Association for Safe Online Pharmacy; 
International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition18; 
 
  eCommerce Foundation (against fake e-shops); 
  Anti-Phishing Working Group; 
  Belgian Computer Emergency Response Team. 

National registered trademarks are protected under the .eu regulatory framework to the same 
extent  as  EUTMs.  However,  no  structured  collaboration  of  the  .eu  Registry  with  Member 
States’ trademark offices exists. This degree of collaboration could  be established, possibly 

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

cooperation-signing-mou-eurid  

17   The Abuse Prevention and Early Warning System (APEWS) is a machine-learning tool developed by EURid 
in collaboration with the University of Leuven, which verifies all newly registered .eu domains to detect and 
prevent  the  delegation  of  malicious  domains  (i.e.  phishing,  spamming,  distribution  of  malware,  botnet 
command and control). 

18   https://eurid.eu/en/news/eurid-and-iacc-team-up-to-fight-cybercrime/ 

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through the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN) set up by the EUIPO19. 
EURid  collaboration  with  EUIPO  could  also  be  extended  to  Member  States’  trademark 
offices, by offering the availability check and/or alert functionalities to their users as well. 

Currently,  holders  of  IPR  other  than  trademarks  (e.g.  geographical  indications  and 
designations  of  origin,  trade  names,  business  identifiers  and  company  names)  only  have 
access to curative measures in case of abusive .eu registration. To improve this situation, the 
.eu  Registry  could  establish  further  collaboration  with  relevant  bodies  and  agencies.  This 
could  include  carrying  out  checks  in  their  IPR  databases20.  Where  the  Registry  would  find 
names  that  are  identical  or  similar  to  .eu  domain  names,  it  could  then  either  notify  the 
rightsholders  (so  they  can  take  action)  or  take  action  directly  itself  (ex  officio).  In  practice, 
this  would  mean  extending  the  alert  functionality  to  those  IPR  as  well.  Concerning  trade 
names,  business  identifiers  and  company  names,  a  study  could  be  launched  to  assess  the 
usefulness of setting up a collaboration with the EU network of business registries.  

Extending  the  scope  of  collaboration  with  authorities  and  organisations  in  charge  of  other 
IPRs beyond EUTM could be particularly beneficial for SMEs. 

5.  Small and medium-sized enterprises 

All aspects analysed in this report provide for a specific angle focusing on small and medium 
sized enterprises.  

In  addition,  this  section  focuses  on  aspects  related  to  .eu  registration  procedures  for  SMEs 
and  the  remedies  at  their  disposal  –  especially  Alternative  Dispute  Resolution  –  to  tackle 
abusive/speculative domain name registrations. 

5.1 Registration procedure  

Overall,  the  .eu  registration  procedure  is  quite  simple  and  straightforward.  However, 
considering  the  importance  of  preventive  measures  to  tackle  speculative  and  abusive 
registrations, it could be improved for SMEs, in particular by: 

 

Implementing  services  allowing  IPR  holders  to  preventively  block  infringing  domain 
name  registrations,  as  other  industry  players  already  do21.  Such  services  help 
rightsholders to protect their prior rights and protect their brands from typosquatting22; 

  Extending  the  use  of  predictive  algorithms  to  prevent  speculative  and  abusive 

registrations in addition to malicious registrations23, as is currently the case; 

19  https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/european-cooperation 
20   Such as the Commission’s EU Geographical Indications register - eAmbrosia https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-
farming-fisheries/food-safety-and-quality/certification/quality-labels/geographical-indications-register/ 
21   Currently on the gTLD market there are several domain blocking services such as Donut’s Domain Protected 
Marks  List  (DPML),  Trademark  Clearinghouse’s  TMCH  TREx,  Uniregistry’s  Uni  EPS,  ICM  Registry’s 
AdultBlock, .club Registry’s .club Trademark Sentry. 

22  Typosquatting is a form of cybersquatting that relies on mistakes such as typos made by internet users when 
entering  a  website  address  into  a  web  browser.  The  typosquatted  domain  name  consists  of  a  common, 
obvious, or intentional misspelling of a trademark (e.g., adjacent keyboard letters, substitution of characters 
that look similar, inversion of letters and numbers, the addition or interspersion of other terms or numbers).  

23   I.e. phishing, spamming, distribution of malware, Botnet command and control. 

8 

 
 
 
                                                           
  Raising rightsholders’ awareness about existing similarity search tools, such as the .be 
WHOIS  lookup,  so  they  can  search  for  similar  domain  names  that  could  potentially 
infringe their rights; 

  Making  information  readily  accessible  to  users  on  how  to  report  different  types  of 

misuse24. 

5.2 Alternative dispute resolution 

Since the internet has global reach and resolving cross-border domain disputes through court 
proceedings  is  costly  and  time-consuming,  extrajudicial  (alternative)  dispute  resolution 
mechanisms  to  resolve  such  disputes  are  internationally  recognised  as  effective  curative 
measures against speculative and abusive registrations. 

Alternative resolution for .eu disputes25 is governed by specific rules26 and has been provided 
by an independent provider, the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC), since 2006. The service is 
also provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since 2017. The .eu 
resolution procedure lasts approximately 3 months. 

Overall, alternative dispute resolution for .eu works as intended27 – but some changes could 
be implemented to make it simpler, more accessible and affordable for SMEs. For example:  

  Making available an online dispute management portal to enable parties to handle the 
entirety  of  the  .eu  disputes  online  (currently  not  all  .eu  resolution  providers  make  it 
available); 

  Shortening  the  procedure  (where  possible),  in  line  with  the  Uniform  Domain  Name 

Dispute Resolution Procedure (UDRP);  

  Keeping the filing fees for initiating a .eu resolution affordable for SMEs; 

 

Introducing  a  ‘loser  pays’  mechanism  to  deter  speculative/abusive  registrations  and 
enable the prevailing party to recover the cost of initiating the .eu procedure; 

  Providing  for  expedited  procedures  such  as  the  suspension  of  domain  names  by  the 
Registry  in  clear  typosquatting  cases  or  procedures  similar  to  the  Uniform  Rapid 
Suspension system (URS)28; 

24   Such as in the .be, .dk domain names. 
25   See Article 22(1)(a) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 874/2004. 
26   https://eurid.eu/d/7770495/EN_ADR_English_rules.pdf 
27  For  more 

information  on 

the 

.eu  ADR,  please  consult  section  10.2  of 

the  external  study: 

https://dx.publications.europa.eu/10.2759/428574  

28   URS is a rights protection mechanism launched by ICANN in 2013 with the introduction of the new gTLDs. 
URS is a low cost, quick procedure for rightsholders experiencing clear-cut cases of trademark infringement 
caused by domain name registrations. It leads to the temporary take-down (suspension) of the domain name 
until it expires. At the end of the registration period, the domain name is cancelled by the registry operator. 

9 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                           
  Making preliminary procedures available, before the dispute over the domain name is 

officially initiated.29  

6.  Conclusions 

Overall,  the  cooperation  between  the  .eu  Registry  and  EUIPO  on  combating  abusive  and 
speculative  registrations  of  domain  names  is  satisfactory.  This  report  suggests  further 
improvements concerning: 

  The  cooperation  between  EURid  and  EUIPO,  in  particular  by  improving  awareness-
raising  and  knowledge-building  activities  and  by  improving  existing  tools  and 
developing new tools to facilitate the simultaneous registration of EUTM and .eu domain 
names; 

  The collaboration with other entities: existing collaboration such as the one with Europol 
could  be  strengthened;  new  collaborations  could  be  introduced,  for  example  with 
national trademarks offices; 

  The measures in place for SMEs, in particular by further improving the registration and 

alternative dispute resolution procedures. 

All  the  recommendations  for  improvement  presented  in  this  report  could  be  achieved  by  a 
mix of: 

 

 

implementing existing measures; 

implementing  new  cooperation  measures  between  EURid  and  EUIPO  and  other 
Union bodies, authorities and organisations at national or international level;  

  and updating EURid procedures.  

They  do  not  require  further  legislative  measures,  rather  concrete  implementation  and 
follow-up.  Some  of  these  measures  could  be  introduced  in  the  service  concession  contract 
between the .eu Registry and the Commission (to be applied once Regulation (EU) 2019/517 
is in application). 

The  Commission  will  follow  up  with  the  .eu  Registry  and  EUIPO  on  the  proposed 
improvements,  with  particular  attention  to  the  simplification  measures  for  SMEs,  and  will 
report  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  progress  achieved  as  part  of  the 
regular reporting on the functioning of the .eu domain name.  

29   For example, filing opposition to a domain name registration with the .eu Registry (post-delegation), to lock 

the domain name (such as in the .it domain name). 

10