Update on COVID-related domain name checks

Since early April 2020 EURid implemented a set of measures in agreement with the European Commission to protect consumers from possible misuses of .eu, .ею and .ευ domain names associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Checks were made on the registration data of both existing domain names and newly registered domain names that contain keywords relating to the pandemic. Registrants of domain names containing those keywords were required to validate their data and confirm the ‘good faith’ of their registration.

Out of the 3 489 domain names registered from 1 Jan until April 2020 and containing one of the keywords, 1709 have been suspended so far because the registrant failed to meet the identity and statement of good faith requirements.

As for the newly registered domain names, the agreed keywords were added to our APEWS system, which meant that from 1 April 2020 until 30 September 2020 the delegation of 4 656 domain names containing one of the agreed keywords was delayed. Their registrant was contacted to confirm their identity and the good faith of the registration. As of today, the validation process has been completed for 24.8 % of the delayed domain names and is still ongoing.

When it comes to the cooperation with law enforcement authorities, we continued to exchange data on domain names resolving into possibly suspicious websites. To date COVID-19 associated domain names represent 0,8 % of the domain names reported to the authorities.