European Parliament Rejects Anti-Counterfeiting Pact, Says TRIPS is Adequate

In a landmark decision earlier on 4 July 2012, the European Parliament rejected the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) by a vast majority, with 478 votes against the deal, 39 in favour, and 165 abstentions.

ACTA is a plurilateral trade pact seeking to strengthen global standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights in order to combat counterfeiting and piracy. The deal’s opponents fear that some of the provisions contained in the final text, which go beyond the standards set by the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), could have a detrimental effect on access to medicines and freedoms in the digital environment.

Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States are the other signatories to the deal; however, they have yet to ratify the agreement.

The move comes just weeks after the EU International Trade Committee (INTA) adopted an official recommendation asking the European Parliament to reject the agreement due to the pact’s ambiguous definition of “commercial-scale” counterfeiting and online piracy, the role of internet service providers, and the possible seizures of in-transit generic medicines.

Four other EU committees have also previously expressed negative opinions on the agreement for similar considerations.