Hi, I am not a lawyer, but I believe the court may be making a fundamental mistake in treating IP addresses as transferable assets. In practice, IP addresses are not property but usage rights, comparable to frequency spectrum licenses in telecommunications. For example, if a company holds a frequency license in one jurisdiction, that license cannot simply be seized and reassigned to an unrelated third party by a foreign court. The license remains subject to the authority of the issuing body, which can revoke or reallocate it if regulatory conditions are not met. By the same logic, IP address allocations are managed by RIPE under specific membership and policy rules. Attempting to enforce their transfer outside RIPE’s framework risks immediate revocation, since RIPE retains ultimate authority over allocation and registration. This makes it questionable whether a garnishment or transfer order from a national court can override RIPE’s regulatory framework. All above is just humble opinion. On Fri, 2025-08-22 at 11:36 +0200, Thomas Czarnetzki wrote:

Dear,

we are the sponsoring LIR of a company that has a claim against a RIPE member in Germany. This claim was confirmed by court judgment through an enforcement order. As part of the compulsory enforcement, there is a garnishment and transfer order instructing RIPE to transfer the member’s IP addresses.

However, RIPE refuses to comply and comes up with all sorts of ideas, e.g. that the creditor should first become a RIPE member, or that the whole matter must first be served to RIPE by a Dutch court, etc. Obviously, RIPE does not seem to care much about applicable EU law and legal proceedings.

The lawyer now recommends suing RIPE, since they are not complying with the garnishment order, thereby making themselves liable for damages, and should then directly pay the claim against the RIPE member instead of releasing the IP addresses.

That would, of course, be even easier, since nobody would have to deal with the sale of the IPs, etc.

Has anyone here ever had any experience with this? Or perhaps an idea how to get RIPE to act in compliance with the law?

Thomas So let me see if I can understand the situation. You have supposedly a legal issue which involves two RIPE members (you plus another in Germany). Since you have I assume failed to resolve the issue between the other companies and yourselves you’re now trying a different “strategy”. So instead of resolving it between yourselves and maybe via your lawyers or the German courts you decided to post about it to a mailing list? You also went to the trouble of accusing RIPE NCC of acting illegally? How is either of these things going to help your case? I’m fascinated how you think that: * Other members want to know about this * You think you can resolve a legal issue on a mailing list * Defaming RIPE NCC on a mailing list is going to win you brownie points with the very people you need to help you Regards Michele -- Mr Michele Neylon Blacknight Solutions Hosting, Colocation & Domains https://www.blacknight.com/ https://blacknight.blog/ Intl. +353 (0) 59 9183072<tel:+353599183072> Personal blog: https://michele.blog/ Some thoughts: https://ceo.hosting/ ------------------------------- Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd, Unit 12A,Barrowside Business Park,Sleaty Road,Graiguecullen,Carlow,R93 X265,Ireland Company No.: 370845 I have sent this email at a time that is convenient for me. I do not expect you to respond to it outside of your usual working hours. From: Thomas Czarnetzki <t.czarnetzki@comtrance.net> Date: Monday, 25 August 2025 at 06:07 To: members-discuss@ripe.net <members-discuss@ripe.net> Subject: [members-discuss] Does anyone have experience with the seizure of IP addresses at RIPE? [EXTERNAL EMAIL] Please use caution when opening attachments from unrecognised sources. Dear, we are the sponsoring LIR of a company that has a claim against a RIPE member in Germany. This claim was confirmed by court judgment through an enforcement order. As part of the compulsory enforcement, there is a garnishment and transfer order instructing RIPE to transfer the member's IP addresses. However, RIPE refuses to comply and comes up with all sorts of ideas, e.g. that the creditor should first become a RIPE member, or that the whole matter must first be served to RIPE by a Dutch court, etc. Obviously, RIPE does not seem to care much about applicable EU law and legal proceedings. The lawyer now recommends suing RIPE, since they are not complying with the garnishment order, thereby making themselves liable for damages, and should then directly pay the claim against the RIPE member instead of releasing the IP addresses. That would, of course, be even easier, since nobody would have to deal with the sale of the IPs, etc. Has anyone here ever had any experience with this? Or perhaps an idea how to get RIPE to act in compliance with the law? -- Mit freundlichen Grüssen Thomas Czarnetzki ------------------------------------------------- comtrance - your communication entrance E-Mail: t.czarnetzki@comtrance.net Internet: http://www.comtrance.net Telefon: +49 (211) 271 59 - 20 Fax: +49 (211) 271 59 - 21 Notfall-Support (24/7): +49 (211) 271 59 - 15 Unternehmenssitz: comtrance service GmbH | In der Steele 35 | 40599 Düsseldorf Handelsregister: AG Düsseldorf / HRB 96082 | Ust-ID: DE-349229353 | Geschäftsführer: Thomas Czarnetzki Alle unsere Leistungen erfolgen ausschließlich auf Basis unserer Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen. To unsubscribe or manage your subscription, log in to the LIR Portal with your RIPE NCC Access account and go to the LIR Account page: https://my.ripe.net/#/account-details. Scroll down to Membership Mailing Lists to update your 'members-discuss' subscription. Having issues unsubscribing? More information about managing your subscription can be found at: https://www.ripe.net/s/members-discuss-subscription-options/