More Irregularities With .Eu Domain Registrations Suspected

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

11 August 2006

A new study has shown more irregularities in the registering of the .eu domain name with a disproportionate number of new registrations found to be taking place in countries with small populations.

According to Ipwalk, Malta has almost twice as many .eu domain names per citizen as Luxembourg in second place, more than five times as many as Germany, and almost seven times as many as the United Kingdom. Cyprus, the Gibraltar and the Netherlands also figured near the top of the list.

Ipwalk undertook its analysis after EURid, the non profit organisation operating the internet top level domain .eu, announced last month that it had suspended 74,000 .eu domain names and sued 400 registrars for breach of contract. The move was prompted by abusive behaviour from a syndicate of registrars who have systematically acquired domain names with the obvious intent of selling them on for a profit. This unlawful practice, known as warehousing, was said to have taken place through fronts located in Cyprus.

After EURid's announcement, Ipwalk said the number of .eu registrations in Cyprus had fallen from from 85,000 to 12,300.

E-consultancy has further suggested that the latest anomaly could indicate that registrars have set up phantom businesses in these countries to warehouse domain names.

"We are looking into anything that looks strange," EUrid spokesperson Patrik Linden was quoted as saying by e-consultancy.

"It might just be someone with a lot of domain names but we have a team studying it," he added.

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