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Consumer protection

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Law

   Consumer protection is a form of government regulation which protects
   the interests of consumers. For example, a government may require
   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 the formation of
   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 those 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

   Consumer protection laws often mandate the posting of notices, such as
   this one which appears in all automotive repair shops in California
   Consumer protection laws often mandate the posting of notices, such as
   this one which appears in all automotive repair shops in California

   In the United States there are a variety of laws at both the federal or
   state levels that regulate consumer affairs. Among them are the federal
   Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act,
   Truth in Lending Act, Fair Credit Billing Act, and the
   Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Federal consumer protection laws are mainly
   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 California Department
   of Consumer Affairs 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 by groups such as Consumer Federation of
   California and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

European Union

   The European Union has been very active in the field of consumer
   protection, producing a considerable volume of Directives which require
   member states to regulate consumer protection to a particular standard
   (which may or may not allow a higher standard of regulation). A very
   important innovation has been the Unfair Commercial Practices
   Directive. There exists a European Commissioner for Consumer
   Protection, a post currently held by the Bulgarian Meglena Kuneva.

Germany

   The Federal Republic of Germany is a member state of the European Union
   and is bound by the consumer protection directives of the European
   Union. Thus 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.

United Kingdom

   The United Kingdom is a member state of the European Union and, like
   the Federal Republic of Germany, is bound by the consumer protection
   directives of the European Union. In the UK, consumer laws are enforced
   nationally by the Office of Fair Trading 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. .

Other Commonwealth countries

   In New Zealand, the corresponding agency is the Ministry of Consumer
   Affairs and the New Zealand Commerce Commission . In Australia the
   corresponding agency is the Australian Competition and Consumer
   Commission or the individual State Consumer Affairs agencies.

Consumer advocacy groups

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_protection"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
