Video Case Study

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Video Case Study

Course: MGMT- 520-11534 Legal, Political, Ethical Dimensions of Business

There has been a movement in the last decade encouraging people to buy American.
Discuss the legal and ethical issues related to boycotting goods from other countries. What
are the practical business implications of such a move?

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Answer:
The economic boycott has often been associated with left wing politics. This may be a
reason why conservatives and others overlook or dismiss boycotting as a strategy to achieve their
goals. Most people associate the word boycott with 60s radicals, reports IN Fashion. But
boycotting is a well-respected, effective and legal means of nonviolent protest, as well as a
vehicle of change. This fact is now more widely known and accepted than ever before in
history.
Boycotting can bring about two of the most detrimental problems that any corporate
executive would prefer to avoid: bad publicity and loss of revenue (in that order). Boycotts
succeed in part by putting a corporation on a defensive footing, generating potentially damaging
publicity, and giving its competitors an unearned opportunity, writes Dale D. Buss in Ethics
and Economics: Holding Corporate America Accountable. One poll showed that 78 percent of
consumers avoided or refused to buy from certain companies because of negative perceptions. In
another survey 48 percent said unethical or unlawful business practices played a role in those
decisions, reports Buss in Christianity Today.
It is acceptable and reasonable for persons to decide where and when to spend their
money or to make it known why they do or do not utilize a particular companys goods or
services. Some might consider it mean or improper to withhold trade from a person or company.
This can certainly be true. For example it is certainly improper to boycott a street vendor simply
because his name begins with the letter s. That would be a frivolous and immoral use of a
boycott. But the boycott strategy, in and of itself, is neither right nor wrong. It can, like many
good things, be misapplied or done for the wrong reasons.

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The World Trade Organization, or WTO, is the largest and most influential of the trade
organizations. China and other heavy counterfeiting nations are part of this group. What
could WTO-participating nations do to address the problems of counterfeiting? What
should they do?
Answer:
WTO members discussed on 89 June 2010 intellectual property enforcement trends,
including concerns about a group of countries negotiating an anti-counterfeiting agreement,
whether life forms should be eligible for patenting, and plans to beef up the annual review of a
2003 decision on access to medicines. This meeting of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS) Council also agreed to accept two African intellectual property
organizations as observers, a move that will strengthen the continents countries ability to use
the WTOs intellectual property provisions.
The TRIPS Council also continued to discuss technical assistance, incentives to transfer
technology, and least developed countries, with Rwanda becoming the latest member to report on
its priority needs. And delegates learnt about new methods of sharing information on-line,
including the new transparency toolkit on the WTO website, a new joint portal for
governments to submit information on their laws simultaneously to the WTO and World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and latest developments in WIPOs online services.
The work on the WTOs side is partly in response to a letter from the General Council
chairperson to all councils and committees on ways to make notifications and other information
flow more up-to-date and more complete in the areas they handle.
The United Nations Security Council, the main decision-making body at the UN, is
comprised of five regular members: China, France, the Russian Federation, the United

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Kingdom and the United States. Ten more members are elected from the General
Assembly. Given the make-up of the committee, what type of action might the UN take with
regard to the counterfeiting issue?
Answer:
Counterfeiting is an enormous problem for businesses all over the world. Counterfeiters
rip off name brand products, making cheap knock-offs, easily (and conservatively) costing many
hundreds of millions of dollars each year. According to the International Quality & Productivity
Center: The counterfeit and gray market luxury goods trade is so big that experts estimate it to
be anywhere from $300 $600 billion globally.
14 January 2014 - A new global campaign has been launched by UNODC to rise
awareness among consumers of the $250 billion a year illicit trafficking of counterfeit goods.
The campaign - 'Counterfeit: Don't buy into organized crime' - informs consumers that buying
counterfeit goods could be funding organized criminal groups, puts consumer health and safety
at risk and contributes to other ethical and environmental concerns. The campaign is centered
around a new Public Service Announcement which was launched on the NASDAQ screen in
New York's Times Square and is being aired on several international television stations starting
this month. The campaign urges consumers to 'look behind' counterfeit goods to boost
understanding of the serious repercussions of this illicit trade.
The production and sale of counterfeit goods is a global, multi-billion dollar problem and
one that has serious economic and health ramifications for Governments, businesses and
consumers. Counterfeiting is everywhere - it can affect what we eat, what we watch, what
medicines we take and what we wear - and all too often the link between fake goods and

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transnational organized crime is overlooked in the search for knock-offs at bargain-basement
prices.
Both governments and industry have been actively engaged in expanding efforts to
combat counterfeiting and piracy in international and national contexts. While the efforts have
had positive results, counterfeiting and piracy levels remain high. Governments have
strengthened legal frameworks, enforcement efforts and have launched awareness-raising
initiatives. Improved enforcement appears essential to reduce illegal activities further and well
publicized enforcement actions have a role in reversing the trend. Improving the situation may
also require governments to strengthen their legal regimes yet further, possibly increasing the
civil and criminal sanctions that apply to IP crime. Actions may also be needed to keep the
Internet from becoming a more prominent distribution channel for infringing items.
Multilaterally, ways to strengthen the existing framework and practices to combat
counterfeiting and piracy could be explored. Industry has come together at the sector, crosssector, national and global levels to develop common and unified responses to counterfeiting and
piracy. Initiatives have been aimed at improving policy, providing technical assistance and
enhancing awareness. It has also begun to devote effort to developing technological solutions to
undermine infringing activities.

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References
Life Decisions International: Ethics, Morality and Economic Boycotts, (n.d). Retrieved on
January 18, 2016 from http://fightpp.org/projects/cfp-boycott/ethics-morals/
WTO: Council Debates Anti-Counterfeiting talks, Patents on Life. (June, 2010). Retrieved on
January 18, 2016 from https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news10_e/trip_08jun10_e.htm
Quinn, G. Counterfeiting, A Growing Worldwide Problem, (August, 2011) Retrieved on January
18, 2016 from http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/08/14/counterfeiting-a-growing-worldwideproblem/id=18428/
UN: Counterfeit Goods: A Bargain or a Costly Mistake, (n.d) Retrieved on January 18, 2016
from https://www.unodc.org/toc/en/crimes/counterfeit-goods.html