Summary

  • The RIPE NCC is a Dutch membership association whose 2024 Articles of Association state that its objectives include "Registration Activities related to the role of the Association as Regional Internet Registry" — that clause, not a statute, is the first grant of registry authority.
  • Membership arises contractually: by entering the Standard Service Agreement, a member acquires both registry services and the obligations that make registry determinations enforceable against it.
  • A recorded remedy exists for contested determinations: the Conflict Arbitration Procedure, mandated by Article 12.4 of the Articles, is informal, distinct from Dutch statutory arbitration, and its rulings can be challenged in Dutch or other competent national courts.
  • The control surface is not static. The 2024 Articles superseded the 2023 version; the May 2025 General Meeting adopted amendments; and the Executive Board approved amendments to the LIR Account Agreement at its 188th meeting (4–5 September 2025) in response to EU DORA.

The association at the top of the chain

The RIPE NCC is a membership association under Dutch law with its official seat in Amsterdam. Its Articles of Association — the 2024 version published as ripe-818 — define the association's objectives to include registration activities connected to its role as a Regional Internet Registry. Article 14 vests all powers not expressly assigned to other organs in the General Meeting, and Article 21 requires a two-thirds majority of votes cast to amend the Articles themselves.

That is worth stating plainly because public discussion of the RIPE Registry often frames its authority as purely a "mandate from the RIPE community." The community-mandate language is real — the RIPE NCC's own audit-activity document, ripe-694, states that the NCC "has a mandate from the RIPE community to keep an up-to-date and correct Internet number resource registry." But ripe-694 is itself a RIPE NCC organisational document, drafted by the NCC and approved by the Executive Board, not a consensus policy produced through the RIPE community's Policy Development Process.

The mandate language and the instrument chain are two different layers, and only one of them is enforceable in law.

The contractual middle: SSA and LIR Account Agreement

Membership of the association arises by entering into the Standard Service Agreement (SSA), published as ripe-812. Under the SSA, the member undertakes to adhere to RIPE Policies, RIPE NCC procedural documents and the LIR Account Agreement. Article 6.3 permits the RIPE NCC to suspend services and deregister Internet number resources for non-compliance with those obligations. Article 9.3 allows termination where a member fails its obligations and does not remedy the failure within the period specified in the Closure procedure (ripe-858).

Immediate termination under Article 9.4 covers enumerated causes including insolvency, providing falsified or misleading data, and repeated refusal to assist audits.

The LIR Account Agreement sits alongside the SSA and routes disputes to a single place. Its Article 9.2 provides that disputes arising from the Agreement "shall be settled in accordance with the RIPE NCC Conflict Arbitration Procedure," and Article 9 designates Dutch law as governing.

The remedy: informal arbitration with a court backstop

The Conflict Arbitration Procedure, published as ripe-844, implements Article 12.4 of the Articles, which mandates "an arbitration procedure in place for the settlement of disputes between Members of the Association on the one hand and the Management Team on the other regarding decisions of the Management Team with respect to the Standard Service Agreements."

Its scope covers disputes between a member and the RIPE NCC over Executive Board or Management Team decisions under the SSA, disputes between two or more members over registration of Internet number resources, and disputes between Legacy Internet Resource holders and the NCC. The procedure is expressly informal and, per the document, does not fall within "Arbitration" as described in Dutch civil law. Parties retain the option to challenge an arbitration ruling at Dutch or other competent national courts.

The procedure carries hard clocks. A request for arbitration must follow attempted bilateral resolution and be lodged within one year of the dispute commencing. Arbiters must rule within twelve calendar weeks, extendable; parties have two calendar weeks to comply with a ruling unless they refer the matter to court. Failure to comply without a court referral leads to termination of the SSA under the Closure procedure.

The Closure procedure itself builds in one further recorded window: before deregistering resources, the NCC gives the member a four-week period to submit contrary evidence or request arbitration — and a request for arbitration during that window causes the NCC to lock the affected records.

Who decides the deciders

Authority over the remedy rests above the Management Team. The Executive Board may propose arbiters and procedural changes, but the General Meeting holds final authority to approve arbiters, dismiss them, or change the procedure; Article 15.5(d) places those items on the General Meeting agenda.