RIPE NCC Report: Law Enforcement Authority Requests 2024

The RIPE NCC receives information requests from Law Enforcement Authorities (LEAs) and tries to facilitate the provision of any required publicly available information. We do not provide confidential or non-publicly available information to LEAs without a court order or other legally enforceable order or request under Dutch law.

In 2024, the RIPE NCC received 115 information requests from LEAs, two of which were binding requests from Dutch LEAs.

Overall, the RIPE NCC has been receiving a significantly higher number of LEA requests compared to before 2022. During 2016-2021, the highest number of LEA requests received in a single year was 60. It was 187 in 2022 and in 2023, it rose to 200, the highest number of LEA requests the RIPE NCC has received in one year.

Similarly to 2023, in 2024 the highest number of requests came from LEAs based in France. In most cases, the information requested was not available from the RIPE NCC. Despite the RIPE NCC clearly stating its role and procedure, this type of request continued to be received from these LEAs.

However, French LEAs submitted considerably fewer requests of this type last year, less than half of those submitted in 2022 and 2023.

In general, despite the number of LEA requests from several different jurisdictions, LEAs seem to acknowledge the RIPE NCC’s procedures when the RIPE NCC advised that it either did not have the information or required a Dutch court order for non-public information.

The RIPE NCC received the following requests in 2024:

For non-public information:

• Two legally binding requests from Dutch LEAs for non-public information. Both requests concerned information related to End Users sponsored by RIPE NCC members. The RIPE NCC complied with these legally binding requests.
• One non-binding request from a non-Dutch LEA for non-public information. This request concerned information related to a RIPE Atlas probe. The RIPE NCC did not comply with this request (since it was received by a non-Dutch LEA). The RIPE NCC provided publicly available information.

For public information:

• One request by a non-Dutch LEA on whether the RIPE NCC would comply with foreign (non-Dutch) subpoenas. The RIPE NCC clarified its commitment to not provide confidential or non-publicly available information to LEAs without a court order or other legally enforceable order or request under Dutch law. Further it provided information on how to access its publicly available data and referred to the RIPE NCC procedure: 'Handling Requests for Information, Orders and Investigations from Law Enforcement Authorities’.
• One request by a non-Dutch LEA on the procedure that needs to be followed to obtain non-public information. The RIPE NCC provided information on how to access its publicly available data and referred to the RIPE NCC procedure: 'Handling Requests for Information, Orders and Investigations from Law Enforcement Authorities’.
• One request by a non-Dutch LEA for information related to the use of the RIPE Database. The RIPE NCC provided publicly available information in that regard and referred to the RIPE Database Documentation.
• One request by a non-Dutch LEA for the procedure LEAs should follow to request the membership termination of a RIPE NCC member. The RIPE NCC explained that LEAs would need to present a Dutch court order or other legally binding and enforceable order and also referred to the RIPE NCC procedure: 'Handling Requests for Information, Orders and Investigations from Law Enforcement Authorities’.
• Four requests by non-Dutch LEAs on how to send an official request to the RIPE NCC to acquire information on IP addresses. The RIPE NCC provided information on how to access its publicly available data and referred to the RIPE NCC procedure: 'Handling Requests for Information, Orders and Investigations from Law Enforcement Authorities’.

For information the RIPE NCC does not have:

• 104 requests for the identification of Internet users of particular IP addresses. The RIPE NCC provided information on its role as a Regional Internet Registry (RIR) and explained how to use publicly available information in the RIPE Database to find the member responsible for a particular IP address block.

LEA Requests

LEA Requests Received by Country per Year