Summary

  • RIPE NCC asks sponsoring LIRs to review independent resources and file its Stop Sponsorship form before 31 December 2026 when the contract with an End User has ended.
  • The form changes the registry sponsorship state. It can stop sponsorship immediately; returning a resource to the free pool is a separate choice requiring the resource holder's confirmation.

The customer can leave while the invoice stays. In its October member update, RIPE NCC tells organisations sponsoring independent resources to inspect those relationships before year-end. Where a contract with a sponsored party has ended, the LIR must send a Stop Sponsorship request before 31 December to avoid related fees. RIPE says it processes these requests only through its dedicated form. A closed customer folder on the LIR's side leaves the registry record untouched.

RIPE's explanation of the self-service workflow shows exactly what the form does. One End User goes into each request. The sponsor selects all that user's resources or only the particular ones whose sponsorship has ended. Confirmation creates a ticket and stops sponsorship immediately. The End User receives follow-up about arranging another sponsor if the resources are still needed. A return to the free pool is an additional option and calls for the holder's confirmation. Two clicks that look adjacent on a screen carry very different consequences for a network.

The 2027 Charging Scheme takes its billing data on 31 December 2026 and sends invoices in January. It retains a €75 charge per independent resource registration and has separate rules for sponsored legacy IPv4 resources and ASNs. That explains the member update's insistence on changing the sponsorship record before the snapshot. RIPE gives no October count of ended contracts still present in its registry.

The practical closeout is a reconciliation: compare active customer contracts with sponsored resource records, submit the form for each former customer, and keep the resulting ticket. Send a breakup email if you like. The registry bills from its own ledger.