The European Parliament has today rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The somewhat one-sided against vote followed a failed attempt to postpone the decision because of ongoing investigations into Acta by the European Court of Justice.
Euro MP David Martin told the BBC: "It"s time to give [Acta] its last rites."
The Verge reached out to an Oxfam spokesperson who told them that:
"Today marks a real turning point, a victory for poor people over the interests of big pharmaceutical companies. ACTA could have made life-saving drugs much costlier for the world’s poorest, resulting in devastating consequences for their health. With Europe’s rejection, we’re now hugely relieved that ACTA is going nowhere."
The result speaks for itself, with 478 votes against, 146 abstentions, and just 39 in favor.
In January, Poland voted to pass ACTA but some lawmakers in that country chose to protest the passage by wearing Guy Fawkes masks in Parliament. Back in February. ZDNet UK reported that Germany had chosen not to vote on ACTA until sometime after the European Parliament votes on the proposal.
In addition a few other European countries, including Poland, had already signed ACTA. The European Union"s rules state that if just one country in the union doesn"t both sign and ratify ACTA, the treaty cannot be enforced in the Union. Todays vote means that ACTA is in-fact dead in the water in Europe.
The US and other countries have already signed the ACTA treaty.