European Union: Republic of Korea and European Union concluded negotiations on digital trade agreement including intellectual property provisions

On 10 March 2025, the European Union and the Republic of Korea finalised negotiations for a Digital Trade Agreement (DTA). The DTA establishes digital trade rules, ensuring consumer trust, legal certainty for businesses, and trusted data flows while preventing unjustified barriers to digital trade. The DTA includes provisions on protections for source code. The provision, along with others related to cross-border data flows, privacy, and personal data protection, promotes open government data and regulatory cooperation on digital trade. The DTA complements the existing 2010 EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Following the conclusion of negotiations, the EU and Korea will proceed with formal procedures for the agreement's ratification and implementation.