[anti-abuse-wg] RIPE Charter

Dear Ronald,

We would like to provide some information in response to the questions
you have raised.

> The "Publication date" on the "RIPE NCC Articles of Association (2013)” as presented at the URL above is "20 Jan 2014", but RIPE NCC, as a formal association under Dutch law has existed for far longer than that, correct?  On what date did RIPE NCC first obtain legal existance under Dutch law?

The RIPE NCC was incorporated under Dutch Law on 12 November 1997, when
the Articles of Association were deposited with the Amsterdam Chamber of
Commerce. The original version of the Articles of Association can be
found here:
https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-176

Since then, the Articles of Association have been updated several times
— each time by a resolution that was approved by the General Meeting
(GM). The RIPE NCC publishes the latest version of the Articles of
Association and keeps a public archive of all previous versions. You can
also find all relevant documents presented at each GM where amendments
to the Articles of Association were discussed.

> In the entire history of RIPE NCC, as a formal association under Dutch law, has there ever been any instance in which The Association has applied either Section 6.1(b) or Section 6.1(e) of the Articles of Association? If so, on how many separate occasions have such terminations occured?
> With respect to each such instance, if any, has The Association obeyed in full the stipulation, as to its own behavior contained in Section 10.5 of the Articles of Association?

In order for a natural or legal person to become member of the RIPE NCC,
they need to sign the RIPE NCC Standard Service Agreement (Article 4).
The Standard Service Agreement is a document approved by the GM that can
be amended through further GM resolutions (Article 2.3).

Accordingly, the termination of a membership is linked to the
termination of a member's Standard Service Agreement (see Article 9.5).

The Standard Service Agreement may be terminated in accordance with
Article 9. This same article states that the particular reasons for
termination and the procedures followed are defined in the RIPE NCC
procedural document "Closure of Members, Deregistration of Internet
Resources and Legacy Internet Resources”. You can find this here:
https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-640

The most common reason for termination of the Standard Service Agreement
is due to non-payment of fees, liquidation or bankruptcy, or when a
member ceases to exist for any reason.

However, there is a smaller number of cases where the RIPE NCC has
terminated Standard Service Agreement because the member:
- Submitted fraudulent documents to the RIPE NCC
- Did not comply with a RIPE NCC audit
- Failed to submit recent proof of their existence (e.g. registration
papers from the national authorities).

As an association under Dutch Law, the RIPE NCC has to comply with
sanctions imposed by the Netherlands and the EU that may restrict us
from having a contractual relationship with a member. More information
about this is available in the RIPE NCC procedural document "Due
Diligence for the Quality of the RIPE NCC Registration Data”. The RIPE
NCC has previously terminated the Standard Service Agreement of several
parties that were listed in such sanctions.
https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-669

So far in 2016, around 300 memberships have been terminated for
non-payment of fees, liquidation or bankruptcy, or because the member
ceased to exist. Around four memberships have been terminated for one of
these other reasons (submitting fraudulent documents, failure to comply
with audits or failure to supply proof of existence). No memberships
have been terminated this year due to sanctions.

We would like to draw your attention to the RIPE NCC Report Form on our
website. This provides a simple way to report fraudulent information
supplied to the RIPE NCC or incorrect information in the RIPE Database,
for example. We will investigate any reports we receive through the
report form and take action if required. While we will don't report back
the results of our investigations directly, we do provide some numbers
in our Annual Report each year.

In 2015, we received 319 reports through the form:
- 131 were reported as incorrect data in the RIPE Database. 67 of these
required further investigation by the RIPE NCC.
- 180 cases were reported as policy violations, untruthful information
or were related to bankruptcy. 143 of these cases turned out not to be
policy violations, seven could not be followed up due to lack of
information and five resulted in further inquiries. 25 did indeed
concern policy violations, untruthful information, or bankruptcy.
- Eight cases were not classified as abuse reports but were investigated
nonetheless.

You can find the report form here: https://www.ripe.net/report-form

Kind regards,

Athina Fragkouli
Head of Legal
RIPE NCC




Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2016 12:27:04 -0700
From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg at tristatelogic.com>
To: anti-abuse-wg at ripe.net
Subject: Re: [anti-abuse-wg] RIPE Charter


In message <57AB1227.1070100 at iszt.hu>, Janos Zsako <zsako at iszt.hu> wrote:

> No, but you can find the RIPE NCC's Articles of Association at
> https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-602

Thank you!  That document is most helpful.

> RIPE does not have "authority" over RIPE NCC, it is the members. In many
> cases the RIPE community and the RIPE NCC membership overlap, but not
> always.

I have many questions.  I hope nobody will mind.  I will try to be
brief.

I'm still trying to understand.  RIPE is *not* RIPE NCC and vise versa,
correct?  I mean they are two different things, legally speaking, yes?
A person or legal entity could be a member of "RIPE" and yet not be a
member of "RIPE NCC", correct?  Conversely, could a person or legal
entity be a member of "RIPE NCC" and yet _not_ be a member of "RIPE"?

Is it correct also that only those persons and legal entities that
are actually paying dues to RIPE NCC are members of RIPE NCC?

The "Publication date" on the "RIPE NCC Articles of Association (2013)"
as presented at the URL above is "20 Jan 2014", but RIPE NCC, as a
formal association under Dutch law has existed for far longer than that,
correct?  On what date did RIPE NCC first obtain legal existance under
Dutch law?

In the entire history of RIPE NCC, as a formal association under Dutch
law, has there ever been any instance in which The Association has
applied either Section 6.1(b) or Section 6.1(e) of the Articles of
Association?  If so, on how many separate occasions have such terminations
occured?

With respect to each such instance, if any, has The Association obeyed
in full the stipulation, as to its own behavior contained in Section 10.5
of the Articles of Association?


Regards,
rfg