Summary

  • RIPE NCC's newly published sanctions table adds four members marked “on hold” in August 2026. One member is also recorded as an End User; one of the four rows reports zero affected IPv4, IPv6 and ASN resources.
  • An on-hold case remains unresolved because cooperation or documentation has not let RIPE NCC finish its checks. Requests for new resources and transfers wait until the case clears.

The oddest line in RIPE NCC's latest sanctions transparency report has three zeroes. On 28 August, a member in Iran was marked “on hold”; the table lists zero affected IPv4 addresses, zero IPv6 blocks and zero ASNs in that row. The report does not say the member owns nothing. It does show that the administrative status exists even when the affected-resource columns have nothing to count.

There are four new on-hold member rows in the report's August changes. One is also listed as an End User. The other three rows carry 1,024, 1,280 and 256 IPv4 addresses respectively; across the four, the reported count is 2,560 IPv4 addresses and five ASNs. In its publication notice, RIPE NCC sets these four beside a different set of new cases: five members and 23 End Users whose resources it says were frozen after applicable EU sanctions were identified.

“On hold” is the intermediate drawer. RIPE NCC says it uses the status when a member or End User has not cooperated with checks or lacks documents needed to conclude them. The report does not assign either reason to a particular August row. While a potential case is open, RIPE NCC will not process requests for new number resources or transfers. This is a decision about registry transactions, and it can matter before a definitive sanctions finding appears in the public table.

The document is titled Q4 2026, but its stock snapshot is dated 1 October; these additions occurred in August. That timing matters when the question is how long a file sits on a desk. The public table records the entry date and status, not a resolution clock for each holder. A useful next report would show which holds cleared, which became confirmed freezes and which stayed open. Four files sound small. For the person waiting to move an address block, an unresolved file is the whole queue.