“We’re Irish!” claim Brits as .eu shrinks yet again
British companies are moving their .eu domain names to their Irish branches in an effort to keep them after Brexit, according to the speculations of EURid.
.eu regs in Ireland grew 18% to 47,781 in the second quarter, according to the registry’s Q2 roundup. EURid said:
The high increase in Ireland could be related to the notice about UK withdrawal from the EU and its subsequence to UK .eu domain name holders. Some of the UK domain name holders may have had the chance to transfer the domain names to their branches in other countries of the EU and EEA, e.g. the neighboring Ireland.
Regs in the UK dropped by 13.9% compared to Q1 and by almost half — 46.7% — year over year. There are now 162,287 UK-based .eu domains.
Overall, .eu is still shrinking, partly as a result of this Brexit impact, which has been felt ever since the 2016 referendum.
There were 3,602,573 registered domains at the end of June, down from 3,661,899 at the end of March.
UK-based registrants have been told that they cannot continue to own .eu domains after Brexit, currently slated for October 31. It’s still a possibility that the date could change, or that Brexit may not happen at all.
Confusing matters, EU citizens living in the UK will still be eligible for .eu domains.
All this data, plus a whole lot more, can be read in the EURid Q2 report (pdf).
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We may still be able to keep our .eu names
https://onlinedomain.com/2019/07/22/domain-name-news/owners-of-eu-domain-names-in-united-kingdom-may-keep-their-domains-after-brexit/
If by “we” you mean EU citizens resident in the UK, then yes. If you mean UK citizens resident in EU countries, then yes. If you mean UK citizens resident in the UK, then no.