The United Kingdom officially withdrew from the European Union on January 31. For this reason, EURid, the registry that runs .EU, the country code top-level domain for the European Union, has updated the information concerning the future of the domain names registered by British entities and individuals. Although Brexit has formally taken place, talks between the EU and the UK with a view to working out and approving new mechanisms of economic and legal cooperation will go on until December 31.
According to Online Domain, British registrants will be able to use their domain names in the .EU domain without any limitations throughout this period. Once this time is up, all registrations will be withdrawn. To avoid this, the registrants will have to confirm their affiliation with the EU by December 31. Legal entities must present documents showing the company’s or organization’s registration in one of the EU countries. Individuals will need to confirm their citizenship of or permanent residency in an EU country.
Absent such confirmations, domain name registrations will be withdrawn on January 1, 2021, which will entail the end of operation of associated services, including websites and email. As for the domain names, they will be available for registration again.
