Consumer protection
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Consumer protection is government regulation to protect the interests of consumers, for example by requiring businesses to disclose detailed information about products, particularly in areas where safety or public health is an issue, such as food. Consumer protection is linked to the idea of consumer rights (that consumers have various rights as consumers), and to consumer organizations which help consumers make better choices in the marketplace.
Consumer law
Consumer protection law or consumer law is considered an area of public law that regulates private law relationships between individual consumers and the businesses that sell them goods and services. Consumer protection covers a wide range of topics including but not necessarily limited to product liability, privacy rights, unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentation, and other consumer/business interactions.Such laws deal with bankruptcy, credit repair, debt repair, product safety, service contracts, bill collector regulation, pricing, utility turnoffs, consolidation and much more.
In specific countries
United States
In the United States there are a variety of laws on the federal or state levels that deal with consumer affairs including the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Truth in Lending Act, Fair Billing Act, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and much more. Federal consumer protection laws are usually enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.
At the state level, many states have a Department of Consumer Affairs devoted to regulating certain industries and protecting consumers who regularly use goods and services from those industries.
For example, in the U.S. state of California, the Department of Consumer Affairs [link] regulates about 2.3 million professionals in over 230 different professions through its 40 regulatory entities. In addition, California encourages its consumers to act as private attorneys general through the liberal provisions of its Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Cal. Civil Code § 1750 et seq. California has the nation’s strongest consumer protection laws due in part to the rigorous advocacy and lobbying done by groups such as Consumer Federation of California which was established in 1960, and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, based in San Diego.
Germany
A large part of German consumer protection law has been enacted pursuant to European Directives (e.g. the directives on door-to-door sales, consumer credits, distance selling, package tours, product liability etc.). In 2002, a large part of this legislation was integrated into the German Civil Code ("Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch").A minister of the federal cabinet is responsible for consumer rights and protection (Verbraucherschutzminister). In the current cabinet of Angela Merkel, this is Horst Seehofer.
When issuing public warnings about products and services, the issuing authority has to take into account that this affects the supplier's constitutionally protected economic liberty (article 12 Basic Law, see Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court)[Case 3 C 34.84, 71 BVerwGE 183].
Commonwealth nations
In the UK, consumer laws are enforced nationally by the Office of Fair Trading[link] which is the UK's consumer and competition watchdog, with a remit to make markets work well for consumers, and at a local, municipal level by Trading Standards departments.[link]. In New Zealand, it is the Ministry of Consumer Affairs [link] and the New Zealand Commerce Commission [link]. In Australia it is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission or the individual State Consumer Affairs agencies.Consumer advocacy groups
- Consumerium - a wiki project to empower consumers
- Consumers International - International NGO
Australia
Germany
- Stiftung Warentest
- Öko-Test
Italy
- Consumers' Associations in Italy
United Kingdom
- Which? - formerly the Consumers Association - a consumer advocacy organisation which has substantial powers (for example to take representative actions under the Competition Act 1998) but which is primarily a lobbying organisation funded entirely by subscriptions to its regular consumer information magazine.
- CAMRA - a lobbying group concerned with the tradition and quality of beer - a consumer advocacy organisation of sorts, but only in relation to a particular market sector
United States
- Angie's List
- Better Business Bureau
- Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports
- Center for Consumer Freedom
See also
People
Consumer Issues
- Antitrust
- Class action
- Competition policy
- Competition regulator
- Extended warranty
- Fairtrade labelling
- Food safety
- Mandatory labelling
- Product recall
- Predatory mortgage lending
- Transparency (market)
Laws
- Competition law
- Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act
External links
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