SRS - Federal Consumer Protection Law (Lesson)

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Federal Consumer Protection Law

Introduction

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With the huge and complex scope of our economy we have great opportunity for an ever growing potential for new products and services. With this great potential, however, comes the opportunity for great risk – risk of scams, fraud, and other types of theft and unfair business practices. The principle of caveat emptor or “buyer beware” applies as much today as it did at the dawn of our emerging commerce. In today’s society, the scope of being victim to this type of behavior can take many forms – a victim to a seller of goods and services, a bank, a debt collector, telemarketer, Internet fraud, false advertising, just to name a few.

In this lesson, we will take a look at the agencies and laws formed to help protect consumers’ rights and interests.

Federal Consumer Protection Laws

Federal consumer protection laws through the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection work to stop unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent business practices. The Bureau:

  1. Collects complaints and conducts investigations;
  2. Sues companies and people that break the law;
  3. Develops rules to maintain a fair marketplace; and,
  4. Educates consumers and businesses about their rights and responsibilities.

The FTC takes complaints about businesses with deceptive, unfair, and fraudulent business practices and shares these complaints with law enforcement partners who uses them to investigate fraud and eliminates unfair business practices. Consumer protection laws have been established for protection in numerous areas including – debt collection, banking and credit services, real estate, privacy, and product liability and safety, among many others.

Let’s take a brief look at some of the various federal and state statutes formed to protect consumers’ rights and interests. Click on the green plus button to reveal the details about each.

Let's Review!

Take a moment to participate in the following activity to practice your understanding of the topics in this module.  Reach out to your instructor if you have any questions.

Final Thoughts

Consumer protection laws are formed to protect citizens from unfair, fraudulent, or illegal business practices. Consumer laws protect citizens by requiring products and services purchased in the marketplace to be safe and transacted in a fair manner. These laws provide ways for individuals to fight back against abusive business practices. There are a vast number of federal as well as state statutes in place to support consumers, just a few of which we covered in this microlesson.

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