.eu

Overview

.eu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union. Managed by EURid, it was introduced in 2005 to provide a regional domain space emphasizing a European identity. The zone supports Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and DNSSEC, and has ASCII and IDN variants (notably Greek .ευ and Cyrillic .ею).

History

Establishment and delegation

• Approved by ICANN on 22 March 2005 and inserted into the DNS root zone on 2 May 2005.
• Launched (sunrise phase) on 7 December 2005; full public registrations (landrush) opened 7 April 2006.
• Registry operator: EURid, a non-profit consortium originally formed by the national ccTLD operators of Belgium, Sweden and Italy, later joined by the Czech operator.
• Regulation governing .eu: Regulation (EU) 2019/517 on the implementation and functioning of the .eu top-level domain.

Sunrise, landrush and stabilization

• Sunrise phases (Dec 2005 and Feb 2006) allowed trademark/geographic and company/personal prior-right registrations.
• Landrush (7 April 2006) saw extremely high demand (hundreds of thousands of registrations in the opening hours; over 700,000 in the first 4 hours reported) and rapid growth to millions of names.
• After the initial landrush surge the namespace experienced a post-launch correction ("junk dump"). Over time renewal rates stabilized at around 78–80%.

IDNs, DNSSEC and variants

• IDN support was implemented (including non-ASCII characters used across EU languages).
• DNSSEC deployment was announced in 2010.
• Cyrillic .ею went into operation on 1 June 2016 to serve Cyrillic-script users (e.g., Bulgaria).
• Greek-script .ευ was launched in November 2019.

Brexit impact

• Eligibility rules were changed following the UK's withdrawal: UK-based registrants lost eligibility as of the withdrawal implementation.
• British-registered .eu domains were suspended from 1 January 2021, withdrawn after a grace period on 1 July 2021, and revoked/made available from 1 January 2022.

Usage and Audience

• Intended use: entities connected with the European Union.
• Actual use: popular for pan-European or cross-border sites and to signal a "European" identity rather than a national ccTLD or global .com presence.
• Adopted by businesses, organisations and individuals across EU member states and the EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) where eligible.
• As of 27 March 2024 the registry reported 3,687,760 registered .eu domains.
• .eu has been described (source material) as a major TLD: at times characterised as among the top ten TLDs and a top ccTLD globally.

Registration Rules

• Eligibility (summary from registry rules included in source):
  • Citizens of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, irrespective of residence; or
  • Natural persons who are residents of an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway; or
  • Undertakings and organisations established in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway.
• Registry policy changes approved in December 2018 expanded eligibility to non-resident EU citizens; updated policies were implemented subsequently.
• Registrations are taken at the second level.
• Multiyear registrations: the registry implemented options allowing registrations for up to 10 years (introduced 7 April 2011).
• IDN/script rules: second-level names must be in the same script as the top-level domain (e.g., Cyrillic second-level names under .ею; Greek under .ευ).
• Prohibitions: domain names must not be registered for speculative/abusive purposes or in violation of third-party rights or applicable law.

SEO and Brand Impact

• Brand positioning:
  • .eu is used to emphasise a pan-European identity; organisations use it to signal cross-border or Europe-focused presence.
  • Many registrants also register .eu to protect brand names and redirect to national ccTLDs or .com sites.
• Search and trust considerations from the provided material:
  • National ccTLDs and .com tend to dominate local markets; .eu has had to compete with strong national preferences.
  • Launch controversies and early cybersquatting/warehousing issues were cited as factors that affected perceptions and uptake in some markets.
• Usage patterns cited by the registry (circa 2011 data):
  • Around 12.8% of .eu web sites were parking pages with pay-per-click ads.
  • Approximately 26% of .eu names were used as redirects to other national or .com sites.

Notable Cases or Examples

• High-volume landrush: millions of names registered during the 2006 opening phases; the first 4 hours saw more than 700,000 registrations.
• Abuse and enforcement actions:
  • Significant cybersquatting, warehousing and speculative registration activity occurred at launch; EURid suspended and pursued legal action related to large-scale abuses (e.g., freezing ~74,000 names and suing registrars in 2006).
  • Public criticism of the launch process came from industry figures; EURid investigated and later pursued enforcement actions.
• Brexit-related mass withdrawal: approximately 317,000 UK-registered .eu domains were subject to removal following the UK's withdrawal from the EU; suspensions and revocations were applied in 2021–2022.
• IDN delegations: deployment of .ею (Cyrillic) in 2016 and .ευ (Greek) in 2019 to serve non-Latin scripts.
• Example of notable .eu usage cited in source material: torrentz2.eu appeared among recognised .eu domains in popularity analyses.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       EU

organisation: EURid vzw/asbl
address:      Telecomlaan 9
address:      Diegem 1831
address:      Belgium

contact:      administrative
name:         Peter Janssen
organisation: EURid vzw
address:      Telecomlaan 9
address:      Diegem 1831
address:      Belgium
phone:        +32 2 401 27 50
fax-no:       +32 2 401 27 51
e-mail:       domain-admin@eurid.eu

contact:      technical
name:         Technical Department
organisation: EURid vzw
address:      Telecomlaan 9
address:      Diegem 1831
address:      Belgium
phone:        +32 2 401 27 50
fax-no:       +32 2 401 27 51
e-mail:       domain-tech@eurid.eu

nserver:      BE.DNS.EU 149.38.1.26
nserver:      SI.DNS.EU 193.2.221.62 2001:1470:8000:100:0:0:0:62
nserver:      W.DNS.EU 194.0.25.28 2001:678:20:0:0:0:0:28
nserver:      X.DNS.EU 185.151.141.1 2a02:568:fe00:0:0:0:0:6575
nserver:      Y.DNS.EU 194.146.106.90 2001:67c:1010:23:0:0:0:53
ds-rdata:     35926 8 2 89b9ef0445904e7c6074b5bece823c3e264fbd91c103d10bde603412343ce70c

whois:        whois.eu

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.eurid.eu

created:      2005-04-28
changed:      2024-05-22
source:       IANA