Summary

  • The October 2020 General Meeting approved, by recorded vote of 1,336 for, 48 against and 17 abstentions, "The General Meeting approves that the RIPE NCC 2020 financial surplus will be redistributed to the membership in 2021" — the resolution authorised the redistribution but fixed no amount.
  • The contractual power behind the resolution sits in Article 7 of the Standard Service Agreement (the Clearing House mechanism), implemented by RIPE-625; the 2021 Billing Procedure cites SSA article 7.3 for the operation.
  • Two distinct challenge paths existed: objections to the GM minutes under section 19.4 of the Articles of Association, and arbitration of SSA disputes under Article 11.2. Article 7 itself contains no objection procedure.
  • Implementation was a discount on 2021 invoices, not a cash refund: EUR 11,035,874 against total 2020 fees of EUR 33,518,200, distributed pro rata, with a two-week window to challenge the calculation.

The resolution and what it actually said

The RIPE NCC General Meeting ran from 28 to 30 October 2020, with voting results announced by livestream at 10:45 (UTC+1) on 30 October. Under agenda point 8, Resolution 1 read: "The General Meeting approves that the RIPE NCC 2020 financial surplus will be redistributed to the membership in 2021." https://www.ripe.net/membership/gm/meetings/october-2020/minutes-general-meeting-october-2020/ The wording matters: it grants approval for a redistribution and designates a year of application, but the amount, the formula and the mechanics all lived in other instruments.

The Voting Report records 1,703 members registered to vote of 19,622 eligible, and 1,401 ballots cast. Resolution 1 passed 1,336 to 48 with 17 abstentions. Resolutions 2 through 4, which amended the Articles of Association, required a two-thirds majority; Resolution 1 needed only a simple majority.

The authorising contract

The resolution's power source is not the Articles of Association but the Standard Service Agreement. Article 7 is headed "Clearing House": Article 7.2 directs the General Meeting to decide each year whether the financial result is added to or deducted from the Clearing House reserve or redistributed among members; Article 7.3 credits a member's share of a redistribution against the following year's service fee; Articles 7.4 and 7.5 condition participation on paid service fees and exclude members whose agreement terminated in the relevant year.

The RIPE NCC Billing Procedure 2021 lists the implementation explicitly as item 2.2 under "Standard Service Agreement, article 7.3." RIPE-625, the Clearing House Procedure, supplies the arithmetic: a member's share equals its percentage of total service fees paid over the relevant year.

Two challenge paths, and one that did not exist

A member dissatisfied with the outcome had two recorded routes, operating on different tracks. Minutes could be objected to under section 19.4 of the Articles of Association via the GM Minutes Objections System — a challenge to what the meeting recorded, not to the commercial result. Disputes arising from the SSA itself route to the RIPE NCC Conflict Arbitration Procedure under Article 11.2. Notably, Article 7 contains no objection procedure: the redistribution power and its challenge path live in different instruments, and a member had to pick the right one.

The implementation page added a third, narrower window: members who believed their individual calculation incorrect had two weeks after invoicing to inform the RIPE NCC, after which the calculation was final.

The money and the mechanics

The redistribution total was EUR 11,035,874, set against total 2020 annual fees of EUR 33,518,200. Only members with active LIRs on 31 December 2020 participated. The formula — member's 2020 annual fee divided by total 2020 fees, multiplied by the redistribution amount — yielded, for the page's example, EUR 460.95 for a standard single-LIR member paying EUR 1,400. The result was applied as a discount on 2021 invoices, not a refund; members invoiced before February 2021 received a separate invoice with the amount.

One documented discrepancy belongs on the record: the meeting transcript states that every resolution required more than 50% yes votes, while the Voting Report states Resolutions 2–4 required more than two-thirds. The Voting Report is the official count record; the transcript's general statement conflicts with it and each statement should be attributed to its instrument.

Sources