EURid is sponsoring .eu Alternative Dispute Resolution procedure at less than half price (600 Euro)

The Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) and .eu registry EURid are running a special fee reduction to make the .eu Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process even more accessible to the European public. EURid is sponsoring the .eu ADR procedure at the Czech Arbitration Court by providing a financial contribution for this time period. The cost of a basic proceeding is cut by more than 50%.

The .eu Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure is used for challenging .eu registrations and it is the equivalent of UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy). All cases are conducted online and by email, and in 21 official EU languages. Cases take an average of four months to resolve. EURid appointed the CAC in 2005 as its ADR provider. In order to make .eu ADR decisions, the CAC selects one or more panellists from its list of 136 accredited international experts.

As of 1 July 2012 there is a temporary discount on ADR fees of EUR 700 per filing an ADR complaint. The discount will be granted per each filed complaint irrespective of the number of domain names in dispute and the type of panel requested (for example the fee for disputing one domain name before the single-member panel will be EUR 600 instead of EUR 1 300, the fee for disputing six domain names before the three-member panel will be EUR 3 300 EUR instead of EUR 4 000 etc.). The discount is applicable to all complaints submitted until 31 December 2012 and paid until 31 January 2013 at the latest. Please see the complete schedule of fees here.

This move comes in response to recommendations made in an external audit of the .eu ADR service prepared for EURid. The  auditor said that the .eu ADR procedure is functioning well but, according to the audit, a fee reduction would further raise the visibility of the service and improve access.

Auditor said that the .eu ADR service is functioning well but this discount shows the opposite is happening. During 2011, only 47 .eu ADR cases were filed and 42 decisions were published, of which 38, or 90%, were in favour of the complainant.  This show that the ADR  procedure is on fast decline and this is what this discount tries to fix. In total since .eu’s launch in 2005, there have been over 1000 .eu proceedings. I think the auditor should have commented the time cases take to resolve. An average of four months is a lot more that the time UDRP cases are decided.

“The Czech Arbitration Court is the out-of-court institution appointed to rule on .eu domain name proceedings. We hope that the new fee structure will help even more people resolve their disputes with respect to contested .eu domain name registrations,” said Board Member of the Czech Arbitration Court, Petr Hostas.

EURid’s General Manager, Marc Van Wesemael, added, “At EURid, we enable anyone with a legitimate prior rights claim to challenge a .eu registration. Making the .eu ADR process more available, especially to Europe’s small businesses, by lowering the fee during 2012 is one way of doing this.”

EURid also plans to engage with the European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA) to help raise awareness about using .eu proceedings as a quick alternative to formal court hearings or litigation. In the same spirit, the CAC plans to enhance the .eu ADR online platform and procedural routines.