Number Resource Society
Cloud Innovation v AFRINIC: what the Supreme Court decided, and what it means for every member
Since 2021 the Supreme Court of Mauritius has ruled again and again for an AFRINIC member against its registry. What it decided, and what it means for members.
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Cloud Innovation v AFRINIC is a dispute between a member and the registry it belongs to, and it has been decided in court, order by order. Since 2021 the Supreme Court of Mauritius has ruled on it again and again, and its orders have protected the member against its registry. Here is what the Court decided, year by year, and what it means for every AFRINIC member. Every order can be read in full in AFRINIC’s court cases.
2021: three orders stopped AFRINIC from ending a membership
In 2021 AFRINIC’s management, and then its Board, moved to end Cloud Innovation’s membership, which would have taken back the addresses its customers’ networks run on. The Judge in Chambers stopped it three times. On 29 March 2021 the Court restrained AFRINIC from terminating, suspending or revoking the membership. On 13 July 2021 it restrained AFRINIC from acting on a Board resolution of 8 July, from freezing or reclaiming the addresses allocated to the member and from denying it access to the WHOIS database. On 3 December 2021 it restrained AFRINIC from ending the membership until the dispute is finally decided.
For every member, this is the first protection: a registry cannot simply switch a member off. When it tries, a court can stop it, and in Mauritius a court did, three times.
2022: going to court is not an abuse
AFRINIC told the Court that the member’s applications were an abuse of its process. In its judgment of 19 July 2022, reported as 2022 SCJ 253, the Court rejected that: Cloud Innovation “cannot be taxed for resorting to an independent court to safeguard its rights”, and upholding AFRINIC’s objection “would imperil the future administration of justice”. The Court declined to treat the member as a vexatious litigant.
Every member has the same right. A registry that calls a member’s day in court an abuse is asking the Court to close its doors, and the Court refused. Why there have been so many cases: Why has Cloud Innovation gone to court so often?
2023: AFRINIC placed in receivership, on a member’s application
By September 2023 AFRINIC had four directors, too few for a quorum, and no chief executive. On 12 September 2023, on Cloud Innovation’s application, the Supreme Court found AFRINIC’s objections unsubstantiated and the orders sought “fully justified, reasonable, and fair”, and it placed AFRINIC in receivership. It appointed the Official Receiver to preserve AFRINIC’s assets and the value of its business and to see that elections are held under its constitution, and it restrained AFRINIC from relocating, merging, restructuring or submitting to a takeover.
AFRINIC is a company that belongs to its members. When those running it could no longer govern it, a member asked the Court to protect it, and the Court did.
2024: the appeal fails, and the Court sets an election deadline
An appeal against the receivership was brought in AFRINIC’s name by a former director and by lawyers with no mandate. On 15 October 2024, in 2024 SCJ 473, the Court of Civil Appeal found that it had been brought without authority, set it aside and restored the receivership. On 25 November 2024, on Cloud Innovation’s motion, the Supreme Court ordered AFRINIC to hold its election by the end of June 2025.
In June 2025 AFRINIC’s members voted, and AFRINIC’s Receiver annulled the election. A Board came out of a rerun in September 2025; AFRINIC and its Receiver have asked the Court to declare those appointments valid, and that application is still before the Court.
2025: on AFRINIC’s own application, the Court ordered the member onto the register
On 11 June 2025, on AFRINIC’s own application, the Supreme Court ordered AFRINIC’s register of members rectified to add Cloud Innovation as its member. AFRINIC’s Receiver signed a written undertaking to rectify AFRINIC’s records within 15 days, and the Court recorded it. The fifteen days passed, and the register was not rectified.
2026: the Court’s rule restates the order
On 9 October 2026 the Supreme Court drew up its order as a rule, witnessed by the Chief Justice: AFRINIC’s register of members is to be rectified to add Cloud Innovation as its member, and the Registrar of Companies is to make the entries within 14 days. The Registrar’s record of AFRINIC, issued on 28 October 2026, lists Cloud Innovation as a member from 9 October 2026. AFRINIC’s Receiver answered with a legal notice asking the Registrar to remove the entry. An officer of the Court who disagrees with an order goes back to the Court.
What it means for every member
A member can take its registry to court, and win. In five years the Supreme Court of Mauritius has stopped AFRINIC from ending a membership, refused to call a member’s case an abuse, placed AFRINIC in receivership when its Board could no longer act, and ordered it to enter its member in its register. That protection belongs to every member, not only to the one who asked for it.
The register is where it starts. The Registrar’s record of AFRINIC names nine members: eight directors and Cloud Innovation. The networks that hold addresses through AFRINIC, pay its fees and are supposed to elect its Board are not on it. NRS asks AFRINIC to enter every eligible resource member, as the Court ordered for one. Read NRS’s statement, Every AFRINIC member belongs on the register of members.
Read the orders for yourself in AFRINIC’s court cases, and the questions people ask most in Cloud Innovation and AFRINIC: straight answers.