Dear colleagues, In the course of carrying out our regular due diligence audit on RIPE NCC members, it has come to our attention that a number of legal entities are responsible for more than one Local Internet Registry (LIR). This has the effect of giving multiple memberships and voting rights to these entities. The RIPE NCC has received legal advice that under Dutch civil law (burgerlijk recht) a legal entity can only have one membership and hence only one vote in a Dutch membership association. This will affect members that hold more than one LIR under a single legal entity. This will not have any effect where: - Different LIRs are held by separate legal entities that are in any way associated (for example, one company and its subsidiary) - Separate legal entities that are represented by the same natural person In both of these cases, the separate legal entities are both allowed to be members and to be allocated separate voting rights. The RIPE NCC is in the process of contacting those members who hold more than one LIR under a single legal entity to ensure that a member of the RIPE NCC has only one vote regardless of the number of its LIRs. The RIPE NCC Executive Board is aware of the issue and has asked the RIPE NCC to keep it informed of developments. The Board will update the membership at the upcoming General Meeting on 26 September. If you believe that your organisation is affected by this issue and you have yet to receive an email from the RIPE NCC, please contact <ncc@ripe.net> to let us know. Regards, Axel Pawlik Managing Director RIPE NCC