In a series of lawsuits filed by nonprofit EURid, the organization selected by the European Commission to operate .eu, more than 74,000 domains have been suspended pending litigation with three U.S.-based domain registrars.
EURid is claiming breach of contract against Ovidio Ltd., Fausto Ltd. and Gabino Ltd., which it alleges created hundreds of phantom companies for the purposes of warehousing or keeping .eu domains on hold for an undetermined amount of time, only to resell them at a more lucrative time in the marketplace.
If EURid prevails in a Brussels court later this year, it has said that it will make all 74,000 of those domains immediately available to the general public.
EURid discovered what it believes was a sophisticate scheme to hoard domain names when it did a review of the .eu registrar system, which it claims has been wildly popular among web users.
EURid claims that ever since the domain went live, 2 million already have been sold.
EURid has said it will continue its investigation into other accredited .eu registrars to make sure the playing field stays level and that only registrars that are known within the industry are entrusted with selling the new TLD.
The .eu domain was first proposed in 1999 and officially was open for registration by April 2006.
