International Business and Technology Blog

This blog’s goal is to give you an overview of European domain registration requirements for selected countries.

Can a non-EU company register European domains?

Even though the EU coordinates and standardizes many processes across the member states, requirements for domain registration are still managed by each country independently and often differ considerably.  Some countries will allow you to register domains without further requirements, while others will require you to provide various local details, e.g. address or corporate tax number, in which case you’ll need the help of a local partner. Some domain registrars provide local contact details for selected countries as part of their service too.

Should I register .eu?

.eu is an increasingly popular domain geographically associated with Europe that you should consider registering. Currently, Google does not recognize .eu as a country specific domain, but as a general domain, which means that on its own it won’t help you with search engine optimization in Europe. However, using the .eu domain in conjunction with country codes in forms of subdomains, (e.g. fr.companyname.eu) or subdirectories, (e.g. companyname.eu/fr) will provide you with the same SEO benefits as having a country specific domain like companyname.fr.

So why bother registering individual European domains, one for each country? Because it protects your brand. If you’re still pondering the benefits of international domain registration, read our blog on SEO and branding benefits brought by international domains.

Below is a table that gives you an overview of requirements for European domain registration across the most demanded countries.

Exporting to South America? Read our blog on South American domains here.

Country specific requirements for domain registration can change, please check with your domain registrar for the latest updates or contact us.

Source of domain registration requirements: EuroDNS