My .eu needs a home

Legal Advice
#1

I’m in the UK. I know that’s unfortunate but I have to live with that fact for a while. The problem is I have a lovely .eu domain and as from 31 December it will become homeless as it can’t stay with me in the UK. If I don’t find a home then it will be killed off!

Does anyone have, or know of, a nice caring home? I will put the address down as the new owner yet lovely .eu can actually still keep living with me in the UK.

I’ve posted this under legals as there may be a legal eagle who knows of any problems behind rehoming .eu’s

Oh, I must add that .eu’s been well looked after and has no undesirable habits. Can’t reveal eu’s full name as that would break forum rules but will be happy to PM any prospective new homer

#2

Given the type of service that you offer you probably need to set up an EU presence for your business if you do not already have one.

You will then just be able to register that address in the contact info (and/or the business as the registrant for the domain) and you will be able to continue to use your .eu domain.

The whole business does make me thankful that I chose a .org though.

#3

Isn’t that what he is asking for? Essentially a correspondance address that is more than a box number? Or am I missing some technical issue here?

#4

I assume so, but he runs a business from that domain - and I further assume that he intends to continue to sell services to French residents post-Brexit. Which means a) that he has more to think about than just his domain name and b) he should sort this out properly as part of his business operation.

I’d suggest that he move it to .com - but apparently that will cost $$, using the .biz TLD is available & cheap though.

#5

To help I think I need to explain more. The problem I have is my domain of xxxxxxx.eu has been advertised and is becoming well known. We were due to move to France yet Covid has scuppered that one. All the reasonable alternative TLD’s have gone, meaning the only realistic option is to maintain the .eu

To do that the main options are (1) form a business in an EU state or (2) transfer the ownership of the domain (not the business) to a real person resident in an EU State such as France. A new business is costly and messy. Transferring ownership, with an agreement that allows me to claim it back later (e.g. when I move to France), is simple.

I thought this may interest someone as I doubt I am the only one with this problem. Charge a few Francs (or £ in the UK) each month for each domain and it can be a nice little earner. As I act as a company Lawyer so dealing with the letter is easy and the same template can be used for any other domain .

#6

I sympathise - I think the loss of .eu to Brits is, as you say, going to catch quite a few. In fact I think it will probably be something of a surprise to many of those affected even though it seemed obvious to me that it would be a problem even before the referendum.

I checked the domain - .com is registered but the registrant looks to be a holding company - the outfit I use for registration says it is available if you want to shell out $$ ($5895 in fact). The .co.uk is also parked with a domain holder so probably will be ££, .biz is available and shouldn’t be too expensive. A few other TLDs are available but probably not a good fit (eg .org or .info).

As I said I think  you just need a French address to put in the contact details to avoid being deregistered, if you can do that in the next couple of weeks then I don’t think you actually need to transfer the domain. Yes, it’s probably exploiting a loophole but I think they are targeting/deregistering purely based on the recorded address.

[I can’t take it off you I’m afraid as I don’t live in France either]

EDIT: The .fr domain is available, I don’t think you need to be French or live in France for that - and it would be quite a logical one to pick.

#7

Seems to come down to finding somebody you can trust. Although you can tie it up in a legal agreement, you will want to avoid the hastle of actually trying to enforce it should you fall out.
I needed a UK-based director for my UK company and an old friend agreed, along with using her address for the registered office - I paid her a day a year (£500) - but I guess your post here means you don’t have anybody close in the EU?

#8

Really grateful for you replies and I’ve solved the problem via an existing French business contact yet I think I need to remove a misconception. Sorry everyone but I’m not a “porn” baron and the xxxxx was only used to avoid me advertising my own business’s name.

Having said that maybe 5,000€ for an upmarket porn site could be good business - but my wife may object!

I’m now settling down to enjoy the UK lockdown. and with by Tesco Club Card Grouse is now down to just £16/ltr. Happy isolation looms. Jut wish I had more stocks of decent wine.