.brussels Domain: Brussels' City Extension and Its Rules
.brussels is a city extension created for Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and for the Brussels-Capital Region. It is run by DNS Belgium vzw, the country's national domain registry, based in Leuven — the same organisation that operates Belgium's own country extension. The extension launched in 2014; visit.brussels, the region's official tourism address, was registered on 2 October 2014. The zone is DNSSEC-signed.
Despite being a city extension, registration is not restricted, and that is the sharpest difference between this name space and .berlin. The terms say it directly: apart from reserved names, any party may request any name that is available and meets the technical requirements. There is no residence in Brussels, no Belgian company, no local address and no representative requirement, and no documents are asked for. Names are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Disputes are handled on two levels. Claims over a domain name go to ICANN's UDRP and URS procedures, in which the registry is never a party. Disputes arising from the terms themselves are governed by Belgian law and referred to CEPINA arbitration: three arbitrators, seat in Brussels, proceedings in English. The Brussels courts remain open for interim relief. Check whether the name you want is available on the domain name search page.
.BRUSSELS Domain at a Glance
- Registry DNS Belgium vzw (Leuven, Belgium)
- Extension type City extension for the Brussels-Capital Region
- Governing text Terms and conditions dated 27 August 2014
- Renewal notice Registry has no obligation to warn before expiry
- Contract arbitration CEPINA; three arbitrators, Brussels, in English
- Document Requirement Documents are required to register a .brussels domain
- Country Germany
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.brussels Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$37.99 /year -
Transfer
$37.99 /year -
Renewal
$41.79 /year -
Restore
$283.40 -
Late Renewal
$7.60
Included With Every .brussels Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
.brussels Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .brussels domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .brussels address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .brussels domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $7.60 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .brussels returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.brussels Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.brussels Domain Registration
- Document Requirement Documents are required to register a .brussels domain
- Country Germany
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.brussels Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .brussels Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Yes, with no additional conditions. The terms in force state that, apart from reserved names, any party is entitled to request any name that is available and meets the technical requirements. The text contains no Brussels connection, no Belgian residence, no local address, no local company and no representative requirement. Allocation is on a first-come, first-served basis. Although this is a city extension, its door is as open as that of a generic one.
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No. The policy contains no document or verification step at registration. Instead the registrant makes a set of representations: that to their knowledge the registration will not infringe third-party rights, that they will not use the name for an unlawful purpose, contrary to public policy or morality, to mislead the public or against fair business practice, that they will participate in good faith in any dispute proceedings, and that they will keep the WHOIS information accurate and up to date. Breaching these lets the registry suspend or revoke the name.
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A name must contain at least 2 and no more than 63 characters. Standard names may use only the letters A-Z, the digits 0-9 and the hyphen; they cannot begin or end with a hyphen and cannot carry two consecutive hyphens in the third and fourth positions. Internationalised names are accepted too, but only from the character table annexed to the terms. The registry also reserves the right to release names that deviate from this syntax under supplemental rules.
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There is no guarantee, and the contract says so outright: the registry is under no obligation to inform any party in advance that the term is about to expire or has expired, and the text names the registrant in particular. The term begins on the date of registration and ends on the same day of the month in which the name was registered; you choose the number of years at registration. Running your own renewal tracking is not advice here, it is a requirement.
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The route is the standard ICANN set. The terms state that, save for proceedings before a competent court, any proceeding concerning a domain name must be conducted before a dispute resolution service provider appointed by ICANN under the UDRP and its rules, together with supplemental procedures such as URS. Every registrant undertakes to take part in good faith. The registry itself is never a party to those proceedings and the registrant must hold it harmless.
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They follow a separate path from domain name claims. The terms are governed by Belgian law, and once a complaint is filed the dispute is referred to arbitration under the rules of CEPINA. The tribunal consists of three arbitrators, the seat of arbitration is Brussels and the language is English; the award is final and binding. The right to seek injunctive or other interim relief before the courts of Brussels is expressly preserved.
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Only partly. The 2014 contract says the registrant's name, address, e-mail and telephone will be published, but practice today differs: in 2026 the registry's RDAP query returns only the organisation name and the country code, the address fields come back empty and the response carries a redaction compliance tag. In other words the text keeps its pre-GDPR wording while the data is masked in practice. You can look up a registered name on the WHOIS search page.
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