Under a new rule that will come into effect February 19, European registrars will have the option to deny the transfer of ownership of the ".eu" domain name if there is abuse suspected. Previously the denial of transfer took 14 days before action could be taken. This should lead to easier investigation of malicious sites (spam and whatnot), although the web site would still be able to function. The ".eu" suffix became available in December 2005 and there are already about 2.4 million Web sites with the new domain.
Eurid, a year-old company, is a nonprofit organization based in Diegem, Belgium, that oversees administration of the .eu domain. The company is circulating a draft of a code of conduct for its registrars and is accepting comments through February 19. The code will be finalized next month and will be voluntary for registrars. By late March 2007 the code should be available for putting into practice and registrars will be able to place a ".eu Code of Conduct" logo on their Web site.