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. A government is an organization that has the power to make and enforce laws for a certain territory. ... In the context of government and public services regulation (as a process) is the control of something by rules, as opposed to its prohibition. ... In economics, consumers are individuals or households that consume goods and services generated within the economy. ... Consumer organizations are organizations that seek to protect people from corporate abuse. ...

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. Public law is the area of the law governing the relationship between individuals (citizens, companies) and the state. ... Private law is that part of a legal system which is part of the jus commune that involves relationships between individuals such as the law of contract or torts as it is called in the common law and the law of obligations as it is called in civilian legal systems. ... Product liability encompasses a number of legal claims that allow an injured party to recover financial compensation from the manufacturer or seller of a product. ... Privacy is a modern construct. ... United States situation Most states in the United States have passed laws giving individuals and businesses a right to sue in court for unfair and deceptive business practices. ... In the broadest sense a fraud is any crime (or civil wrong) for gain that utilises some deception practiced on the victim as its principal method. ...

Such laws deal with bankruptcy, credit repair, debt repair, product safety, service contracts, bill collector regulation, pricing, utility turnoffs, consolidation and much more. Bankruptcy - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

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. The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA is a set of United States statutes added as Title VIII of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. ... The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is an American federal law that protects information collected by consumer reporting agencies such as credit bureaus, medical information companies and tenant screening services. ... The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 repealed the Glass-Steagall Act opening up competition among banks, securities companies and insurance companies. ... Categories: United States federal agencies | Stub ... The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. ...

In the UK, consumer laws are enforced by Trading Standards [1] (http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/). In New Zealand, it is the Ministry of Consumer Affairs [2] (http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz). In Australia it is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission or the individual State Consumer Affairs agencies. New Zealand is an independent sovereign state in the south-western Pacific Ocean. ... Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is the sixth-largest country in the world, the only country to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia/Oceania. ... The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is an independent Australian commonwealth government authority established in 1995 to protect consumer rights, business rights and obligations, perform industry regulation and price monitoring and prevent unauthorised anti-competitive behaviour. ...

See also

• Competition law
• Consumers' Association, UK advocacy group, publishers of Which?
• Consumers Union, U.S. advocacy group, publishers of Consumers Reports
• Consumerium - a wiki project to empower consumers
• Ralph Nader
• Michael Vernon