According to the Finnish site Content Business, EURid has suspended 74 000 .eu domain names and has sued 400 registrars for breach of contract. They have accused a syndicate of registrars of systematically acquired domain names with the obvious intent of selling them. In the domain business we call this warehousing.

In this case we are convinced that the domain name holders of the 74 000 .eu names (Ovidio Ltd, Fausto Ltd and Gabino Ltd) are acting as a front for a number of registrars. The domain name holders and the registrars can be regarded as one and the same. Since registrars should only register domain names for existing customers and not “warehouse” the names in order to resell them at a higher price, this is clearly in breach of the registrar contract, says Herman Sobrie, Legal Manager of EURid.

The .eu launch was bad for many companies who simply hadn’t got their act together. Claiming them back from squatters, even with trademark papers is a long process and cash-deals have become the cheaper option for most. It’s good to see EURid step in on this specific case.

But for all the marketers out there, get ready for 74′000 highly desirable .eu domains to go back into the pool any day now.

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