Law Commons^™

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta): An Assessment, Dalindyebo Shabalala

School of Law Faculty Publications

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (‘ACTA’) is motivated by the perceived lack of progress of multilateral enforcement of intellectual property rights. Building on the equivalent provisions in EU and US bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs), the ACTA parties sought to establish best practice international standards to which other countries could aspire or adhere. Proponents stressed the need to combat the increase in global piracy and counterfeiting, drawing on estimates of the scale of the problem, such as those from the OECD that suggested international trade in counterfeit and pirated products amounted to some $200 billion in 2005 (excluding domestically …