[members-discuss] Charging Scheme Models 2024

I also want to state that this brings me into a legally uncomfortable situation. I am only a small LIR and therefore I have an own responsibility. When I began many years ago, I also had many small customers. They have low prices for their IPv4 /24 subnets and I never increased these prices, also not due to the pandemic or the war. Why should I have - there was no factual reason to do so.

I am not legally entitled to increase prices without customers consent. A contract where I have the right to change prices from month to month would be illegal. In case of missing consent I would be required to terminate the contract and look for a new customer - which is hard to find with increased prices due to competitors which benefit from the capping limit in option A. That will definitely lead to a high risk for a law suit including damages, even if I am contractually allowed to terminate the contract. I am allowed to request the customer for a slight price increase, but not for huge price increases. But if RIPE NCC hugely increases the prices, I may be required to also hugely increase my prices.

That violates my independence and responsibility as a LIR, as I will never use my position to enforce higher prices against customers. This is absolutely wrong. I would now get punished for charging too less in the past.

Therefore, I highly recommend to either charge the same for all members *or* according to a pure usage based scheme, not a category based scheme. The latter prevents that smaller or mid-sized companies pay the same as the largest LIRs RIPE NCC has and the most LIRs will benefit from it.