EURid, the non profit organisation operating the Internet top level domain .eu, today announced that it has suspended 74,000 .eu domain names and has sued 400 registrars for breach of contract.

This move was prompted by abusive behavior from a syndicate of registrars who have systematically acquired domain names with the obvious intent of selling them. In the domain name business, this is called warehousing and is not permitted. A handful of .eu domain names have already been suspended as their holders have not been able to show that they are based within the EU. The outcome of the suspended domain names now awaits a court decision.

"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.