EU domain names and Brexit: Will your domain name be revoked?

Based on the United Kingdom’s intent to leave the European Union, the European Com­mis­sion issued a notice to stake­hold­ers con­cern­ing .eu domain names re­gistered by UK residents and entities. The com­mu­nic­a­tion high­lights that .eu domain names will no longer be available for UK residents and entities post-Brexit. Although this in­form­a­tion is subject to in­ter­me­di­ate measures that may be enclosed in an eventual with­draw­al agreement, more than 300,000 domains may be at risk.

After Brexit, in­di­vidu­als who reside in the United Kingdom as well as or­gan­isa­tions that are es­tab­lished in the UK but not in the EU will no longer be eligible to register .eu domain names or renew .eu domain names re­gistered before the with­draw­al date. Re­gis­trars will not be permitted to process any requests for the re­gis­tra­tion or for the re­gis­tra­tion renewal of .eu domain names from the afore­men­tioned bodies.

Although it is not yet certain that all .eu domains owned by UK residents and entities will be revoked once Brexit has taken place, there are certain pre­cau­tion­ary steps you can take to prevent and minimise the negative impact of a re­voc­a­tion.

• The straight­for­ward solution is to transfer ownership of your .eu domain to an EU sub­si­di­ary outside the UK before Brexit comes into force.
   
• If you don’t have an EU sub­si­di­ary outside the United Kingdom, you may want to think about re­gis­ter­ing a new domain so that you can start re-directing your traffic as soon as possible. If your .eu domain is revoked, redirects will no longer be possible. Re­dir­ect­ing your traffic without undue delay will allow the search engine to pick up on current signals and this will prevent a drop in Google rankings. This will also give you an op­por­tun­ity to adapt your marketing as well as allowing your website visitors to adjust to the new domain.