European leaders seek to replace .com

European government and business leaders want to drop .com in favour of .eu as the flagship European domain extension, and want to use it to impose local ecommerce laws.

The European Commission (EC) yesterday reported on comments made following the February publication of a working paper on the .eu domain. The EC also announced the next steps to creating the new domain to the European Parliament.

Some 92 responses had been received by the EC, including six from national administrations, 28 from industry organisations (including eight telecom operators) and a number of domain name registrars.

While the EC initially saw the .eu suffix as a complement to country level domains such as .co.uk, it seems other European governments and business leaders think this does not go far enough.

According to the feedback, these parties want .eu established alongside .com and .org as a new generic top-level domain (gTLD). They also want rules on registering domain names tightened up to exclude cyber squatters and non-European businesses operating ecommerce facilities unless they pay EC taxes and agree to be bound by EC law.

This, they hope, would end disputes over cross-border consumer protection and jurisdiction, and would require non-European businesses to be registered in at least one European country if they wished to conduct ecommerce operations from a .eu domain. EC officials seem to agree with the feedback.

"The Commission considers that the creation of the .eu domain would be a decisive element for accelerating e-economy and ecommerce in Europe at a time when the single currency will soon be a reality," said a statement.

"It would give users who wish to operate across the internal market a specific European identification which will be recognised globally. Indirectly, it would also increase consumer confidence in the use of the internet among European users, since European law, data and consumer protection rules would apply."

Users also want to end cyber squatting - registering domain names to sell on - by requiring would-be .eu website operators to be registered for VAT (or an equivalent) to show they are a genuine business.

The European Union has already informed the US government and Icann, the not for profit organisation which administers global domain names, that it plans to deploy .eu as a gTLD and that the EC will be the relevant public authority responsible for its management and administration.

The EC will then draw a legal framework for the implementation and operation of the .eu domain. It said this "will include measures to counter the speculative and abusive registration of names". These conclusions will be presented to the European Parliament later in the year.

See also:

Europe speeds up .eu domain plan

The European Commission has drawn up plans for administering the proposed .eu domain name - which it says it wants operational as soon as possible.  12 Dec 2000

Europe set to replace .com in 2001

Plans mooted by European government and business leaders to drop .com for .eu as the flagship European domain extension are on course, and registrations may start next year.  04 Oct 2000

Battle starts for control of new domains

The battle is underway between internet service providers across the world to win the rights to manage one of several domain names being introduced to rival .com.  03 Oct 2000

Ebusiness losers lack 'brandwidth'

The Economist's Electronic Intelligence Unit is in the process of revamping itself to embrace the internet age, but the move has not been without its pain.  01 Aug 2000

Domain name expansion promises .confusion

Although the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has approved plans to expand the web's top-level domain name system, internet users will have to wait until the end of the year to know what addresses are available to them.  18 Jul 2000

Net body approves domain names expansion

Internet industry officials have approved plans to expand the web's top-level domain system, potentially opening the door to domains such as .shop, .travel and .sex.  17 Jul 2000

Ecommerce: where there's a will, there's a way

Although three out of four adults in the UK now use the internet in some shape or form, very few actually take the plunge and buy goods online. Julian Patterson looks at why ecommerce is not taking off in Europe as quickly as might be expected.  12 Jul 2000

EU redefines net anti-piracy directive

European bureaucrats have agreed on a directive to combat music and data piracy on the internet, but the proposals could make the net more expensive or a lot slower to navigate.  14 Jun 2000

Europe moves to tax software downloads

The price of software downloaded from the US or other non-European Union countries could rise if new European Commission proposals become law.  08 Jun 2000

UK lags with net shopping protection law

The UK government yesterday missed the European Commission's deadline to introduce revised laws to protect online shoppers, because it said it needed more time to consider the implications of the controversial directive.  05 Jun 2000

Slow EC beaten to '.eu' domain suffix

A UK company has stolen a march on Brussels by launching its own domain registration service that offers URLs with the '.eu.com' suffix.  30 Apr 2000

Planners address web domain name crisis

Radical ways of increasing the supply of website names are being put forward at a high-level meeting of internet planners this week in Egypt.  09 Mar 2000

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