A panel of three arbitrators of the Extra-Judicial Dispute Resolution Board for domain names with the top-level identifier ".eu" has rejected the complaint of MasterCard Europe SPRL concerning the registration of the domain name "europay".
The decision was based on the following, strongly abbreviated facts:
The applicant is a company incorporated under Belgian law with its registered office in Belien. The complaint was directed against the registration of the domain europay.eu by the respondent.
Until 2002, the Complainant carried out activities under the name "Europay". The Complainant is also the proprietor of two Benelux trade mark registrations (numbers 460547 and 506193) concerning the "EUROPAY" sign, registered in Nice Class 36 (for financial services, insurance, services relating to payment transactions) since 6 April 1989 (for Benelux trade mark no. 460547) and 20 December 1991 (for Benelux trade mark No. 506193); and an international trade mark registration (No. 643424) for the sign "EUROPAY: THE THINKING BEHIND EVERY GREAT BANK", registered in Nice Classes 9 (for magnetic stripe cards), 16 (for bank cards) and 36 (for banking services) since 6 September 1995.
The respondent currently operates a beta version of a free shopping platform under the disputed domain. With regard to the trade mark rights asserted by the complainant, the respondent essentially argues that they are subject to revocation for non-use pursuant to § 25 MarkenG, § 125 b MarkenG and Art. 50 CTMR and therefore cannot establish any rights of the complainant in the disputed domain.
