Authorities move against domain holder

Brussels-based EURid (the European Registry of Internet Domain Names) has suspended approximately 10,000 .eu domain names registered by a single owner because of doubts over the owner’s eligibility as an EU resident.

EURid’s eligibility criteria are clear on the issue that – according to an EU regulation from 2002 – only persons living in the EU, or a company with an office inside the EU, can register for a .eu domain name. The owner, Zheng Qingyin, has had all her registered domains suspended until a court decision has been made. It is understood that she has now counter-filed.

EURid’s legal manager, Herman Sobrie says that Zheng was registering highly generic names and numbers. ‘When we screen our data bank we see that some people have an amazing amount of names,’ he said. ‘Nobody needs 10,000 names…

‘We started asking for more information about her domicile. She said she was domiciled in London. At first we took that for granted, but we had indications that that was probably not true. We have serious doubts about the eligibility of that lady and at a certain point we thought we had enough reason to say that she wasn't eligible.’

EURid, a non-profit organization, was selected by the Internet Corporation for Assigned names and Numbers (ICANN) to manage the .eu domain in March 2005. Last year, EURid took action against 400 registrars for breaching .eu’s contractual terms and conditions.