E-Commerce Updates - Michigan 2024 CGO

AFF – E-Commerce Supps/Blocks – CGO
Notes
Big thanks to Sarah Norman, Sophie Heinen, Charlisa Penzak, Delicia Liao, Avinn Shrestha, and Aditya Jain for their work in making this file !!
This is just a file filled with supplements to the e-commerce aff – this includes answers to disads, counterplans, t, kritiks with advantage addons + answers to neg args – have fun with this and good luck with the aff and the rest of your season !! <3
-avinn
Case
Adv---Counterfeiting
AT: E-Comm Definition---2AC/1AR
E-Commerce defintion:
Christiana Jolaoso, 5-31-2024, "What Is E-Commerce? Definition, Types & Getting Started", Forbes Advisor, https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/what-is-ecommerce/
Definition of E-Commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the exchange of goods and services and the transmission of funds and data over the internet. E-commerce relies on technology and digital platforms, including websites, mobile apps and social media to make buying and selling possible.
Advantages of E-Commerce
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, e-commerce sales totaled $253.1 billion during the first quarter of 2023, revealing that more businesses are embracing e-commerce. Here’s what you, too, can gain from e-commerce.
Global Marketing Reach
Unlike a physical store that limits a business to its geographical area, an e-commerce website allows you to reach customers anywhere. Once customers can place orders online and you can ship a product to their location or provide a service, there’s no limit to your reach.
Lower Operating Costs
Building an e-commerce website and maintaining it is cheaper than running a brick-and-mortar store. You won’t need to rent retail space or a warehouse or worry about building maintenance or property insurance. Plus, advertising online is cheaper, especially with organic blog posts and social media that can drive traffic to your site.
Convenience and Flexibility
E-commerce websites provide flexibility for their owners and customers. You can offer a wide selection of products while customers make round-the-clock purchases, regardless of their time zone or location. And as a business owner, you can earn even while sleeping.
A/O---Online Pharmaceuticals---2AC
E-Commerce counterfeit pharmacies are rampant in the squo.
Have you ever been tempted to buy your medicines from an online pharmacy or another website?
You can protect yourself and your family by being cautious when buying medicine online. Some pharmacy websites operate legally and offer convenience, privacy, cost savings and safeguards for purchasing medicines.
Not all websites are the same. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that there are many unsafe online pharmacies that claim to sell prescription drugs at deeply discounted prices, often without requiring a prescription. These internet-based pharmacies often sell unapproved, counterfeit or otherwise unsafe medicines outside the safeguards followed by licensed pharmacies.
Many unsafe online pharmacies use fake “storefronts” to mimic licensed pharmacies or to make you think their medicines come from countries with high safety standards. But the medicines they sell could have been made anywhere, with little care or concern for safety and effectiveness. Also, these drugs could be fake, expired or otherwise unsafe for you and your family.
How can you tell if an online pharmacy is operating legally? The FDA’s BeSafeRx page has resources and tools to help you make safer and more informed decisions when buying prescription medicines online.
Counterfeit medicines pose an existential threat for health --- 250,000 children will die due to counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
Ian Sample, 3-11-2019, "Fake drugs kill more than 250,000 children a year, doctors warn", Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/11/fake-drugs-kill-more-than-250000-children-a-year-doctors-warn
Doctors have called for an urgent international effort to combat a “pandemic of bad drugs” that is thought to kill hundreds of thousands of people globally every year.
A surge in counterfeit and poor quality medicines means that 250,000 children a year are thought to die after receiving shoddy or outright fake drugs intended to treat malaria and pneumonia alone, the doctors warned.
More are thought to die from poor or counterfeit vaccines and antibiotics used to treat or prevent acute infections and diseases such as hepatitis, yellow fever and meningitis.
[Figure Omitted]
Most of the deaths are in countries where a high demand for drugs combines with poor surveillance, quality control and regulations to make it easy for criminal gangs and cartels to infiltrate the market. Often they face only fines or minor sentences if caught.
“The penalties are a slap on the hand, but we are talking about murder by fake medicine here,” said Joel Breman, a senior scientist emeritus at the US National Institutes of Health in Maryland.
Tests on drugs in the field have identified fake and ineffective copies of a vast range of drugs including antimalarials, antibiotics and cardiovascular and cancer medicines. Many fakes originate in China and India and have been found to contain everything from printer ink and paint to arsenic. Lifestyle drugs, such as Viagra, dominate the market for counterfeit medicines.
Beyond the fakes that are made and sold by criminal gangs are poor-quality medicines that lack sufficient active ingredients to work properly, or fail to dissolve correctly when taken. Sloppy manufacturing is often to blame, but others are sold past their shelf life or have degraded in poor storage conditions.
Writing in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, doctors from the US government, universities, hospitals and the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer warn that the rise in “falsified and substandard medicines” has become a “public health emergency”. On top of the direct harm they cause, bad drugs are a major driver of antimicrobial resistance, which fuels the rise of superbugs. “This is an urgent public health issue and we need to take action,” Breman said.
Up to 10% of drugs in low and middle income countries are poor quality or outright fakes, costing local economies between $10bn and $200bn a year, the report states, and the problem is getting worse. In 2018, Pfizer identified 95 fake products in 113 countries, up from 29 fakes in 75 countries in 2008.
In a raft of recommendations, the doctors call for greater support for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) drug surveillance programme and an update to the UN’s sustainable development goals in which governments would ensure at least 90% of the medicines in their countries were of high quality. Registers of fake drugs found in the field should also be made open to the public, the doctors say.
Another recommendation is for a global treaty on drug quality that builds in the means to gather evidence on fake drug activities, and sets out extradition agreements so that suspects can face trial in countries they target. Such a treaty would encompass illegal online pharmacies, which doctors say are an increasing part of the problem.
Breman said the international community and pharmaceutical companies had to improve the security of the drug supply chain in all countries from the point of manufacture to the patient. There was an immediate need for simple and rapid tests that doctors could use to verify drug quality, he added.
“Very little has been done about this and that’s why our recommendations hit specific things that frankly have been evaded by the powers that be,” Breman said.
Last month, WHO issued a global alert about a fake cancer drug in Europe and the Americas. The counterfeit drug is packaged to look like Iclusig, an anticancer medicine used to treat adults with chronic myeloid leukaemia and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. WHO said the pill contained nothing but paracetamol.
Michael Deats, who leads the vigilance group on fake medicines at WHO in Geneva, said “the highest political will is required” to ensure that global policies on bad drugs make a difference on the ground. More than 110 countries have reported more than 2,000 cases of bad drugs overWHO’s global surveillance and monitoring system, he added, with new cases arriving every day.
Bernard Naughton, a researcher in falsified and counterfeit medicines at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, said fake medicine was a “wicked problem” that called for a combined effort from pharma companies, academia, governments, healthcare practitioners and the public.
“The UK legitimate pharmaceutical supply chain is safe but it requires constant monitoring,” he said. “Regarding online pharmacies, there is poor public understanding of how to differentiate between a legitimate online pharmacy and an illegal one. Illegal online pharmacies and the sale of medicines via social media platforms pose the greatest risk to the UK public.”
Adv---Money Laundering
AT: No Nuke Terror---2AC
Terrorism can go nuclear --- resource shortages are bogus – leakage of nuclear weapons is possible and kleptocracies magnify this risk.
Robert S. Litwak, No Date, "Deterring Nuclear Terrorism", Wilson Center, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/deterring-nuclear-terrorism
That entails blocking the pathways to terrorist acquisition of a nuclear weapon: transfer--the sale or handoff of a weapon from a nuclear-weapon state; leakage--the theft of a nuclear weaponor weapons-grade fissile material; and indigenous production--the construction of a nuclear device from illicitly obtained weapons-grade fissile material.
Each pathway to nuclear acquisition by a non-state terrorist group is contingent on an act of commission or negligence by a state. The "leakage" of a weapon to a terrorist group would originate from one of the nine nuclear-weapon states, or the 26 states (at current count) with weapons-grade fissile material in their civilian stocks. Effective strategies on the state level to prevent nuclear terrorism will not eliminate non-state threats, but will go far in achieving that objective.
A/O---Economy---2AC
Money Laundering harbors economic decline --- erodes the banking system and causes a loss in trust.
Carolina Claver, 12-6-2023, "Financial Crimes Hurt Economies and Must be Better Understood and Curbed", IMF, https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/12/07/financial-crimes-hurt-economies-and-must-be-better-understood-and-curbed
Money laundering is a necessary component of the organized crime that too frequently spans borders, skirts taxes, funds terrorism and corrupts officials—and it comes with hefty macroeconomic costs. Bad actors are also embracing new technologies on top of their traditional techniques, all of which makes economic growth less inclusive and sustainable, fueling inequality and informality.
The international community has made significant progress toward strengthening safeguards against money laundering and terrorist financing, with help from the IMF and other organizations. We decided a decade ago to take a more bespoke approach to identifying key risks, working with member countries and international partners, particularly, the Financial Action Task Force, the international standard-setter in this area.
But the overall efforts are still broadly insufficient. For example, as the FATF noted last year, there is still a major gap between progress countries have made on technical compliance, such as enacting new laws, and on the effectiveness of these efforts. For example, very little laundered ill-gotten proceeds are ever confiscated.
Accordingly, the IMF recently reviewed our strategy on anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). The goal is to better help our 190 member economies address these critical financial integrity issues.
High costs
We must first recognize that financial crime affects lives and livelihoods, especially those of the most vulnerable, and that the costs it imposes are very high—and increasing. Direct costs vary and can include lower revenues, higher expenditures, sanctions, lost banking services, and even increased financial instability.
For example, and as recent IMF work has shown in the Nordic Baltic Region, AML/CFT deficiencies are associated not only with large drops in stock prices for the most directly affected banks, but also declines in share prices of other lenders who simply happen to be in the same country, as well as banks in the region that have similar cross-border exposures.
[Figure Omitted]
The indirect costs are even greater because they are imposed across an economy, whether by fueling boom-and-bust cycles or making home prices unaffordable. Potential financial stability impacts include bank runs and lost foreign investment. Large-scale money laundering can even spur volatility in international capital flows, undermine good governance, spark political instability, and just generally erode trust—in governments and institutions.
Liquidity, as measured by deposit flows, tends to deteriorate around financial integrity events for the affected bank while other domestic banks’ liquidity could benefit from positive substitution effects in the short-term.
That causes great power war --- the plan solves.
Hal Brands 21, history PhD from Yale, Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies; and Dr. Michael Beckley, political science PhD from Columbia, associate professor of political science at Tufts University; 9/24/2021, “China Is a Declining Power—and That’s the Problem,” https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/24/china-great-power-united-states/
Slowing growth makes it harder for leaders to keep the public happy. Economic underperformance weakens the country against its rivals. Fearing upheaval, leaders crack down on dissent. They maneuver desperately to keep geopolitical enemies at bay. Expansion seems like a solution—a way of grabbing economic resources and markets, making nationalism a crutch for a wounded regime, and beating back foreign threats.
Many countries have followed this path. When the United States’ long post-Civil War economic surge ended, Washington violently suppressed strikes and unrest at home, built a powerful blue-water Navy, and engaged in a fit of belligerence and imperial expansion during the 1890s. After a fast-rising imperial Russia fell into a deep slump at the turn of the 20th century, the tsarist government cracked down hard while also enlarging its military, seeking colonial gains in East Asia and sending around 170,000 soldiers to occupy Manchuria. These moves backfired spectacularly: They antagonized Japan, which beat Russia in the first great-power war of the 20th century.
A century later, Russia became aggressive under similar circumstances. Facing a severe, post-2008 economic slowdown, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded two neighboring countries, sought to create a new Eurasian economic bloc, staked Moscow’s claim to a resource-rich Arctic, and steered Russia deeper into dictatorship. Even democratic France engaged in anxious aggrandizement after the end of its postwar economic expansion in the 1970s. It tried to rebuild its old sphere of influence in Africa, deploying 14,000 troops to its former colonies and undertaking a dozen military interventions over the next two decades.
All of these cases were complicated, yet the pattern is clear. If a rapid rise gives countries the means to act boldly, the fear of decline serves up a powerful motive for rasher, more urgent expansion. The same thing often happens when fast-rising powers cause their own containment by a hostile coalition. In fact, some of history’s most gruesome wars have come when revisionist powers concluded their path to glory was about to be blocked.
T
T – Domestic
2AC – “Domestic” Extraterritoriality - Short
We meet
Plan text in a vacuum
We increase protection of trademarks on ecommerce in the United states.
The Lanham Act isn’t extraterritorial even though it includes foreign commerce
Alito ’23 [Samuel; June 29; justice of the US Supreme Court, writing the majority opinion in a 9-0 decision; Abitron Austria GMBH et al. v. Hetronic International, Inc., https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1043_7648.pdf]
With this well-established framework in mind, the first question is whether the relevant provisions of the Lanham Act, see §§1114(1)(a), 1125(a)(1), provide “a clear, affirmative indication” that they apply extraterritorially, RJR Nabisco, 579 U. S., at 337.3 They do not. It is a “rare statute that clearly evidences extraterritorial effect despite lacking an express statement of extraterritoriality.” Id., at 340. Our decision in RJR Nabisco illustrates the clarity required at step one of our framework. There, we held that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act could have extraterritorial application in some circumstances because many of its predicate offenses “plainly apply to at least some foreign conduct” and “[a]t least one predicate . . . applies only to conduct occurring outside the United States.” Id., at 338. Here, neither provision at issue provides an express statement of extraterritorial application or any other clear indication that it is one of the “rare” provisions that nonetheless applies abroad. Both simply prohibit the use “in commerce,” under congressionally prescribed conditions, of protected trademarks when that use “is likely to cause confusion.” §§1114(1)(a), 1125(a)(1). Hetronic acknowledges that neither provision on its own signals extraterritorial application, but it argues that the requisite indication can be found in the Lanham Act’s definition of “commerce,” which applies to both provisions. Under that definition, “‘commerce’ means all commerce which may lawfully be regulated by Congress.” §1127. Hetronic offers two reasons why this definition is sufficient to rebut the presumption against extraterritoriality. First, it argues that the language naturally leads to this result because Congress can lawfully regulate foreign conduct under the Foreign Commerce Clause. Second, it contends that extraterritoriality is confirmed by the fact that this definition is unique in the U. S. Code and thus differs from what it describes as “boilerplate” definitions of “‘commerce’” in other statutes. Brief for Respondent 23. Neither reason is sufficient. When applying the presumption, “‘we have repeatedly held that even statutes . . . that expressly refer to “foreign commerce”’” when defining “commerce” are not extraterritorial. Morrison, 561 U. S., at 262–263; see also RJR Nabisco, 579 U. S., at 344. This conclusion dooms Hetronic’s argument. If an express statutory reference to “foreign commerce” is not enough to rebut the presumption, the same must be true of a definition of “commerce” that refers to Congress’s authority to regulate foreign commerce. That result does not change simply because the provision refers to “all” commerce Congress can regulate. See Kiobel, 569 U. S., at 118 (“[I]t is well established that generic terms like ‘any’ or ‘every’ do not rebut the presumption against extraterritoriality”). And the mere fact that the Lanham Act contains a substantively similar definition that departs from the so-called “boilerplate” definitions used in other statutes cannot justify a different conclusion either.
Counterinterp – if the harm occurs in the US, then enforcement is domestic protection
The harm of infringement occurred to domestic companies – that means the plan’s a domestic protection
LAWRENCE K. NODINE, 2022 – counsel of record for the International Trademark Association. “BRIEF OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRADEMARK ASSOCIATION AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF NEITHER PARTY” in the case of ABITRON AUSTRIA GMBH, ET AL., Petitioners, v. HETRONIC INTERNATIONAL, INC. Respondent.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1043/250905/20221227154119470_21-1043%20Brief.pdf //DH
Importantly, the Lanham Act’s focus is not limited to point-of-sale consumer confu

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