It is indeed the news of the week when it comes to domains and how Brexit will slowly start having an effect on companies and individuals in the UK. If you are a UK sysadmin who owns a .EU domain, it will be taken away from you on 31st March 2019 in a no-deal Brexit scenario (and in any case, on 1st January 2021 if get a deal in place).

According to the European Commission’s Notice to Stakeholders the only certainty is that UK entities will not be able to register or renew .eu domains. As for existing registrants, it merely states that the registry will be “entitled to revoke such domain names on its own initiative“. ​The brexit notice from EURid seems to suggest they’re just exploring the options at the moment.

The European Commission issued a notice to stakeholders concerning the .eu domain names registered by UK residents. The notice reads:

“Subject to any transitional arrangement that may be contained in a possible withdrawal agreement, the EU regulatory framework for the .eu Top Level Domain will no longer apply to the United Kingdom as from the withdrawal date. […]

“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.”

As reported above, this information is subject to any transitional arrangement that may be contained in a possible withdrawal agreement, which is an ongoing negotiation between the United Kingdom and European Commission. We will keep you updated with any further information we have but we strongly advise you start considering alternatives and transferring all your data and emails prior to the change.

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