Brexit could outlaw .EU domain names in the UK

brexit

There has been a lot of buzz lately about Brexit, and more recently, the possibility of a “no deal” Brexit. No matter how you slice it, a lot of going to change for people in the UK, and one of them that most people probably aren’t thinking about right now is their domain portfolios.

It turns out that the .EU registry is pretty strict about who can register and renew their domains, and they’ve already issued a warning:

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.
Accredited .eu Registrars will not be entitled to process any request for the registration of or for renewing registrations of .eu domain names by those undertakings, organisations and persons.(Source – European Commission)

What this means is that unless someone decides to specifically carve out something in the Brexit deal that would allow UK citizens to hang onto their .EU domains. But let’s be honest, nobody is prioritizing domain names when it comes to squeezing things into the deal this late in the game.

Of course, there are loopholes (I’d imagine, but certainly don’t know for sure) and for people in the UK with a large portfolio, having a business registered in a country in the EU might do the trick. Either way, there are going to be some pretty disappointed people in the UK, and a LOT of .EU domains dropping in 2020.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton