The European body responsible for .eu domain name registrations, EURid, has recently published a press release addressing whether businesses will be able to maintain their .eu domain name registrations once Britain has left the European Union.
EURid has announced that following withdrawal, businesses will no longer be able to register, or renew existing .eu domain names registered to UK addresses. Those wishing to retain their .eu domain name registrations will only be able to do so if they are an EU resident or have an EU postal address which can be used as the registrant's admin contact.
There are estimated to be only 317,000 .eu domains registered in the UK, and this issue is likely to have most impact on those businesses which do have a large European customer base, and rely on a .eu domain to signpost their website.
For such businesses, unless they are able to transfer their .eu domain name registration to an EU branch/subsidiary or find some alternative, termination of the registration will take effect from 30 March 2019 (subject to any transitional arrangements agreed on withdrawal from the EU).
The alternatives include the possibility that a Europe based agent could be appointed as the admin contact on behalf of a UK business. However, whether this would stand up to scrutiny is questionable. The simplest course of action, therefore, for any business which is in this position, and which uses a .eu domain name to signpost its website, may be to register a .co.uk or alternative domain name for use in relation to its website, and start re-directing web traffic as soon as possible.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.