Suppose you are a sales rep for a major pharmaceutical company. You get paid by commission, so the more drugs you sell to doctors, the more money you make. You know that sales reps in your company have been visiting doctors and telling them that if they prescribe your company’s medication, they will receive 5% of the sales revenues. This arrangement can bring in thousands of dollars each year for both the sales reps and the doctors. You know the names of a few sales reps who are allegedly giving these kickbacks, but you are not sure how many sales reps are involved. You also don’t know if sales managers know about the kickbacks or are receiving payments from the reps.

1. Is it unethical to be flexible and break the law against kickbacks?

2. Why are kickbacks illegal? Who benefits from kickbacks, who gets hurt by them, and how?

3. What would you do in this situation? (Would you start giving kickbacks yourself? Blow the whistle on sales reps to their managers? Blow the whistle to an outside source like the government or the media? Do nothing?)