Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a plurilateral treaty that seeks to improve the global enforcement of intellectual property rights through the creation of common enforcement standards and practices and more effective international cooperation.

Counterfeiting and piracy of intellectual property rights is recognised as a global issue. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that the international trade in goods infringing intellectual property rights accounts for more than $250 billion a year.

ACTA aims to address this by establishing shared international standards on how countries should act against large-scale infringements of intellectual property rights. ACTA will not create new intellectual property rights, laws, or criminal offences in the UK and EU but will provide an international framework that strengthens international enforcement in areas of intellectual property (IP). In addition, ACTA should be consistent with the WTO TRIPS Agreement.

Eleven negotiating rounds (40Kb) involving Australia, Canada, European Union (including the UK), Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States concluded in 2010. ACTA is currently in the process of being signed and ratified.

More information regarding this agreement is available on the European Commission website .

If you wish to send any comments you may have concerning ACTA please e-mail us.

Latest news

• 26 January 2012 - The UK signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo alongside 22 European Member States.
• 16 December 2011 - ACTA agreed at Council of the European Union.
• 14 October 2011 - ACTA clears scrutiny in the House of Lords European Scrutiny Committee (EUC-23 published 11 January 2011).
• 1 October 2011 - ACTA signed by most of the negotiating parties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan .
• September 2011- ACTA formally transmitted to the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament (INTA) .
• 9 September 2011 - ACTA clears scrutiny in the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee (see report No. 40 – doc 12190/11 and 12193/11).
• 27 June 2011 - The proposals for signature and conclusion of ACTA have been received from the Commission and deposited for national Parliamentary scrutiny.
• 6 May 2011 - An update on ACTA and open discussion took place on 25 March 2011 at the DG Trade Civil Society Meeting.
• 27 April 2011 - Commission services' comments on the opinion of European Academics on ACTA were published.
• 6 December 2010 - The finalised Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) text was released on the Europa website.
• 20 October 2010 - EU press statement - All you want to know about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
• 10 March 2010 - The European Parliament passed a resolution on transparency and state of play of the ACTA negotiations.
• 9 March 2010 - Karel De Gucht, Trade Commissioner, responded to the European Parliament’s concerns in an oral Parliamentary question debate on transparency and state of play of the ACTA negotiations.