eco International
In 2024, eco International further reinforced its role as a global advocate for the Internet industry, expanding its reach and influence worldwide. Through a strategic focus on virtual collaboration, policy development and international partnerships, the division successfully engaged with members and stakeholders from over 60 countries.
Global initiatives and partnerships
Over the course of the year, eco remained highly engaged in international representation, actively participating in ICANN meetings and related events. Following eco’s successful hosting of ICANN78 in Hamburg in 2023, eco continued its collaboration with ICANN 2024 through a series of webinars. Core members of the team participated in the ICANN79 in Puerto Rico, ICANN80 in Rwanda, and ICANN81 in Istanbul, representing its members at the ISPCP and on the GNSO Council. Beyond attending these key meetings, eco organised three global follow-up online readouts (ICANN79 readout, ICANN80 readout, ICANN81 readout), and co-hosted a webinar on WHOIS data with ICANN, introducing requestors to the newly launched Registration Data Request Service (RDRS). The recommendations for effective use of ICANN’s Registration Data Request Services (RDRS) have been summarised in a paper.
Throughout 2024, the topDNS Initiative – launched in 2021 by the Names & Numbers Forum Competence Group – continued to make significant strides in combating DNS abuse. Working closely with the Anti-Abuse and Security Competence Groups and numerous partners such as the NetBeacon Institute, the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network and the Global Cyber Alliance, the initiative gained additional supporters and advisory group members throughout the year. The new supporters in 2024 included Cloudflare, Switch and VVR (Vereiniging van Registrars), while the new advisory group members incorporated Sourena Maroofi, Cyber Security Analyst and urlabuse.com. Furthermore, in collaboration with EuroISPA, the eco Names & Numbers Forum informed members about the topDNS Initiative in order to promote closer cooperation between registries and registrars, as well as ISPs and hosting providers.
As part of the topDNS Initiative, a partnership was also established with the Global Cyber Alliance. topDNS produced the explainer video on how to effectively combat illegal Internet content, while new Best Practice videos were additionally released. In May 2024, the initiative also hosted a DNS Abuse workshop at Nordic Domain Days. In addition, the IIF Feeder Workshop held in November in Frankfurt was another key event in furthering the initiative’s goals.
Further solidifying its commitment to European digital infrastructure, in that year eco continued its active involvement in Gaia-X, a project that unites governments, industry and academia in the development of a secure, competitive and trustworthy European data ecosystem. This has been a cornerstone of the Gaia-X Summit since its inception in 2019. By the end of 2024, the Gaia-X Federation Services (GXFS) project started approaching completion, delivering significant technical components for driving digital ecosystems.
Meanwhile, the Certified Senders Alliance (CSA), which has 45 partners, marked its 20th anniversary with a global 2024 CSA Summit on email security and deliverability. The event, held in Cologne, attracted experts from 20 countries to discuss best practices, compliance and emerging challenges in responsible international email marketing.
Moreover, the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany also expanded its influence across the European Union. As an active Board member of the “Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact”, the Alliance extended its impact well beyond Germany’s borders.
Policy & Law
During 2024, the association’s Policy & Law division shared information on current regulatory topics from the European Union and Germany. These insights were regularly shared via multiple channels, including Policy Alert, Policy Digest, the weekly View from Brussels, the eco European newsletter, as well as the EuroISPA Monthly Report. These are central pillars of the English-language service offer for international eco members.
Key policy topics included Digital Policy for Europe 2024-2029, and the Implementation of the EU AI Act. In addition, three debriefing formats were held on significant EU regulations, covering the AI Act, the eIDAS Regulation and the Data Act.
Furthermore, the eco Complaints Office also firmly stood behind the European Commission’s overarching objective to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, producing a Joint Industry Call for Protecting Encryption in the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation, as well as the Directive on Combating Child Sexual Abuse Material.
Additional legal insights were also provided on topics such as Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) and Data Protection, specifically regarding its compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regulatory frameworks. In February 2024, a position paper was also produced on “Call for Evidence on the GDPR”. A wide range of European policy & law press releases were also released, including, for example, “Shaping the Digital Transformation in Europe”, “Eight Key Demands of the Internet Industry for a Digital Europe”, and the “EU Member States’ Vote on the AI Act”.
International members
In 2024, eco had 369 member companies from over 60 countries based outside of Germany. These companies made up 37 per cent of eco’s total 1,005 members. The majority are located in the European Union and North America. The expansion of English-language services in recent years has enabled more members to actively engage in the association’s work.
In November 2024, Lars Steffen was re-elected as Vice-President of the EuroISPA Board. He succeeds eco Board Member Oliver Süme and eco Honorary President Michael Rotert, who have both been members of the EuroISPA Board for many years. Rotert remains as Honorary Speaker, and Süme continues as Chair of the EuroISPA Data Economy Committee. Furthermore, in April 2024, Vivien Witt joined the Board of the European Internet Forum (EIF).
Collaboration
In addition, eco pursued its existing collaboration with a variety of European partner associations. The close exchange of views on positions and current topics with CISPE, the Dutch Cloud Community and the Danish Cloud Community, the Dutch Data Center Association and European Data Centre Association and other European industry associations was also maintained.
The collaboration between eco and the Internet Society in 2024 was primarily characterised by the joint activities of the Global Encryption Coalition. eco’s prior CEO Harald A. Summa remains to serve as Co-Chair on the Organization Member Advisory Council. Summa also joined the RIPE NCC Executive Board. In addition, Lars Steffen continues as an Executive Committee Member in the leadership of the ISPCP at ICANN to promote networking among ISPs on topics such as domains and DNS.
International communication
The English-language magazine for members, entitled dotmagazine, continued to attract great interest from readers and authors within the eco member community in 2024. Throughout the year, dotmagazine published 73 articles, covering a wide range of topics across the entire Internet industry’s value chain, such as “On the Cusp of the Digital Revolution”, “We Should Talk More About Resilience and Less About Sovereignty”, “Economic Implications of DNS” and “The Netmundial Multistakeholder Approach as a Model for Internet Governance”.
Nearly 80,000 visitors from all over the world accessed dotmagazines’ articles and interviews. The regularly changing topics cover all relevant areas of the Internet industry’s value chain. Interested members are cordially invited to contact dotmagazine@eco.de.
Newsletter, social media & websites
The dotmagazine newsletter provides monthly information about the association’s activities and regularly presents the latest articles. The number of subscribers once again reached over 1,300 in 2024. What’s more, the English-language LinkedIn account gained 360 additional members and now has more than 2,600 followers.
The eco International team also successfully continued its translation and support work for all fields of the association – including the CSA, Gaia-X and GXFS, eco Complaints Office, Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, AI IN PRACTICE, the Datacenter Expert Group, the range of eco Competence Groups and EuroCloud Deutschland.
Over the course of the year, 205 news items and interviews, in addition to a wide range of additional annual reports, studies, positions and documents were translated and published on international.eco.de.
In the year under review, the 73 articles were created and published for dotmagazine in collaboration with members, partners and colleagues from the various sectors. Increasingly, follow-up reports from selected webinars are also being created and made available to members via members+. The supporters of the topDNS Initiative also published a print edition.
For further information, visit:
