EURid Acts Over Abusive Domain Name Registrations

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com

26 July 2006

EURid, the non profit organisation operating the Internet top level domain .eu, announced on Monday that it has suspended 74,000 .eu domain names and has sued 400 registrars for breach of contract.

This move was prompted by abusive behavior from a syndicate of registrars who have systematically acquired domain names with the obvious intent of selling them. This practice is known as warehousing, and is not permitted.

Herman Sobrie, Legal Manager of EURid explained that:

“In this case we are convinced that the domain name holders of the 74,000 .eu names (Ovidio Ltd, Fausto Ltd and Gabino Ltd) are acting as a front for a number of registrars. The domain name holders and the registrars can be regarded as one and the same."

"Since registrars should only register domain names for existing customers and not “warehouse” the names in order to resell them at a higher price, this is clearly in breach of the registrar contract."

As a means of quality control, EURid constantly monitors the registrations of .eu domain names in order to make sure all holders of .eu domain names are based in the EU zone, as required by the Public Policy Rules for .eu. Similarly, EURid verifies that all accredited registrars are acting in the best interests of the end user in accordance with their contract with EURid.

A handful of .eu domain names have already been suspended as their holders have not been able to show that they are based within the EU. The outcome of the suspensions now awaits a court decision.

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