Abstract: The charge asymmetry in top quark production at hadron colliders is sensitive to beyond-the-Standard-Model four-fermion interactions. In this study we compare the sensitivity of t (t) over bar cross-section and charge asymmetry measurements to effective operators describing four-fermion interactions and study the limits on the validity of this approach. A fit to a combination of Tevatron and LHC measurements yields stringent limits on the linear combinations C-1 and C-2 of the four-fermion effective operators.