[address-policy-wg] Reclamation of Number Resources

Dear Ronald,

The RIPE policy document “IPv4 Address Allocation and Assignment 
Policies for the RIPE NCC Service Region” contains clear requirements 
regarding the de-registration of address space held by our members:
https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-733#9

—-------------------
The RIPE NCC may close an LIR for any of the following reasons:

     * the LIR does not pay money owed to the RIPE NCC
     * the LIR cannot be contacted by the RIPE NCC for a significant 
period of time
     * the LIR consistently violates the RIPE community's policies

The RIPE NCC takes on responsibility for address space held by closing LIRs.
—--------------------

This is further specified in our procedural document “Closure of 
Members, Deregistration of Internet Resources and Legacy Internet 
Resources”:
https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-775

The RIPE NCC has de-registered address space based on these policy 
requirements by carrying out further investigations, including for 
policy violations. We provide an overview of the investigations carried 
out in our Annual Report [1]. Please note that the RIPE region has no 
specific out-of-region usage policy.


We see de-registration of Internet number resources as the last resort, 
and as far as possible, we try to work with our members to ensure policy 
compliance while simultaneously preventing any impact on active networks 
and their users.

I hope this answers your questions.

Kind regards,


Marco Schmidt
Assistant Manager Registry Services
RIPE NCC

[1] https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-777


On 07/07/2022 23:27, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
> Greetings all,
>
> As many of you no doubt know, there has been quite an extraordinarily large
> brouhaha of late within the AFRINIC region relating to AFRINIC's efforts to
> reclaim certain large blocks of IPv4 addresses from one particular member
> organization.  This effort has resulted in considerable litigation within
> Mauritius, the home country of AFRINIC.
>
> Partially as a result of this ongoing controversy, but also just for my
> own edification, I would like to ask a number of questions about any and
> all prior instances in which RIPE has reclaimed number resources from
> member organizations, based on policy.
>
> It seems safe to assume that there have historically been some instances in
> which RIPE memberships have been terminated, and any associated assigned
> number resources reclaimed, if and when a given member has simply failed
> to pay fess due to RIPE.  My questions however have to do with situations
> where policy violations other than the non-payment of fees are involved.
> Specifically, I would like to know if any of you can recall past instances
> where number resources have been reclaimed, by RIPE, for any of the following
> reasons:
>
>      *)  Usage of the assigned number resources was no longer consistant with
>          the original justification submitted to RIPE.
>
>      *)  Violation(s) of out-of-region usage policy.
>
>      *)  Any other policy violations.
>
> Thanks in advance for any and all responses.
>
>
> Regards,
> rfg
>