.eu domains: EURid and the condition that caught the British out

EURid runs the registry

EURid operates .eu for the entire European Union under EU legislation. Sales go through registrars as everywhere else; at a Polish one the fee is 28,38 PLN net to register and 39 PLN to renew (August 2026), which makes .eu one of the cheaper European extensions to keep.

Only holders connected to the Union may keep it

Eligibility is limited to citizens and entities of the European Union and a few associated states. It is a continuing condition, not a one-off formality at purchase.

Brexit is the best-known illustration. British holders stopped meeting the criterion and had to move their domains to an eligible entity or lose them. The names were paid for and legitimately registered, and the right to them still lapsed.

If you register .eu for a company that might relocate, treat that as a risk worth writing down.

Availability checks are weaker here

EURid has no entry in the IANA RDAP bootstrap, so there is no immediate authoritative answer from the registry. Checking falls back to DNS, which is indicative only — exactly as with .de.

A .eu name that looks free in DNS may be registered and simply unused. Final confirmation comes from a registrar.

Who it suits

A company selling across several EU markets that would rather not keep a separate domain in each. Eight country domains mean eight invoices, eight policies and eight renewal dates; one .eu means one of each.

Against it: a customer in Poland or the Czech Republic still clicks more readily on their own country extension. .eu often works better as a corporate address than as a sales one.