EURid sues 400 Registrars Over Cyberwarehousing 74K domains

[jmcc]

EURid has sued 400 registrars for breach of contract over cyberwarehousing 74K domains. Among those front companies named were Ovidio Limited, Fausto Limited and Gabino Limited. The domains were put on hold last week and caused the .eu domain count for Cyprus to drop from 85K to 12K overnight. Ovidio Limited has a Cyprus address.

EURid press release

I've been covering the story on my blog but this looks like EURid is taking action. There are still a few hundred more bogus registrars though.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jeter4982]

That is very interesting, but I am glad they are doing it, as the .eu landrush really was a scam. I wonder if EURid wins the court battle if there will be a .eu landrush II...

Tom

 

[jmcc]

That is very interesting, but I am glad they are doing it, as the .eu landrush really was a scam. I wonder if EURid wins the court battle if there will be a .eu landrush II...

Well the court case might be straightforward but another landrush will not be. EURid still has to deal with hundreds more bogus registrars first. I think, that if things continue the way they are going, there might be more domains put on hold and more legal action in the next few months. The cost of contesting the court case could prove to be more than what the domains are worth.

And then there is the whole tax angle for what were intially front/shelf companies.

Regards...jmcc

 

[bluesman]

= A TRIPLET ON THE .EU MESS =

EU - such a dumb extension, anyway!

EU? If it ain't a dot com, than it don't deserve a mom.

EU: Isn't that what Ernest always said when something was getting extra stinky? Yep! Know whattuh mean, Vern?

 

[jmcc]

= A TRIPLET ON THE .EU MESS =

EU - such a dumb extension, anyway!

In an Inspector Clouseau accent:
Zoot alors. Another crafty European plan to extract money from ze Americans has been foiled.

Most Europeans consider .eu to be a dumb extension too.

Regards...jmcc

 

[bluesman]

...Most Europeans consider .eu to be a dumb extension too.

Regards...jmcc

Oops - that part was just a rib. I had no idea that Europeans also considered .eu to be dumb. Now I can only wonder what their take on the Euro dollar would be, then!

 

[jmcc]

Oops - that part was just a rib. I had no idea that Europeans also considered .eu to be dumb. Now I can only wonder what their take on the Euro dollar would be, then!

Well the Euro is the main currency in most of the EU except the UK and Denmark I think. It is a pain that it is worth more than the US Dollar at the moment especially as Adsense is so important to many webdevs and sites in Europe.

The ccTLDs are well established in Europe with .DE and .UK being among the biggest in the world. It surprised everyone that the UK had so many .eu domains registered because it is often considered to be one of the more Europhobic countries in the EU. But the fact that many of the bogus registrars had used UK front companies to register domains did artificially boost the number of UK registered .eu domains. Though it was no where as near the problem that Cyprus had - 85K to 12K overnight because of Ovidio domains being put on hold. Germany on the other hand is more interesting - it has over 10 million .de domains so many of the German registered .eu domains are probably legitimate registrations. Ireland has about 27K .eu domains. I think that's a bit high and some of those domains are definitely warehoused/squatted.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jerke]

More on this topic

see more on this topic here

 

[jmcc]

One aspect that is going to cause problems with many of these front companies used by these bogus registrars is the tax implications. If the government tax authorities get involved in this mess, the front companies may have to file tax returns in the country of incorporation and explain the acquisition of the funds to acquire the domains.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Damion]

More .eu extension bashing...
For what...


*sigh*

 

[slugraduate]

Maybe .eu wasnt so popular after all? A few entities buy up a large bulk of domains, artificially inflating the market and skewing the numbers? Imagine if this scandal collapses the .eu market. Lot of PO'd end users who paid top dollar. It could ripple through the whole DN market.

 

[jmcc]

Maybe .eu wasnt so popular after all? A few entities buy up a large bulk of domains, artificially inflating the market and skewing the numbers?

The number could easily be skewed by 50% or so.

Imagine if this scandal collapses the .eu market. Lot of PO'd end users who paid top dollar. It could ripple through the whole DN market.

Actually it might have the opposite effect since EURid is acting against cyberwarehousing/squatting. This is something that no other gTLD registry has done to date. It might even give a few of them some ideas. However the legal framework under which EURid operates is a lot tougher than that for most gTLDs.

Regards...jmcc