Consumer Rights Law


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Consumer Rights Law - Guide to Consumer Law


Consumer Protection Laws are federal and state statutes governing sales and credit practices involving consumer goods. These laws protect consumers against deceptive or unconscionable advertising and sales practices, product quality, credit financing and reporting, debt collection, leases, and other aspects of consumer transactions.

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Consumer Law - US

  • ABA - Consumer Protection Committee

    The Consumer Protection Committee monitors and reports on developments in the law of false and deceptive advertising, unfair trade practices and illegal marketing. These developments often include cases brought by private litigants, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general, as well as consumer class actions, competitor suits under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, and decisions by the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division (NAD).

  • Aviation Consumer Protection Division

    The Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, including its Aviation Consumer Protection Division, monitors compliance with and investigates violations of the Department of Transportation’s (Department) aviation economic, consumer protection, and civil rights requirements. The Office also provides legal review and support on aviation economic licensing matters.

  • Consumer Credit Protection Act

    The United States federal wage garnishment law, widely known as the Consumer Credit Protection Act guards employees from discharge by their employers because their wages have been garnished in any one week. It was approved by the government in 1968. The Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor includes the Employment Standards Administration, who administers the act. The informed use of credit is administered by the United States Congress and stabilizes economic acts to be enhanced with competition informed unto various financial institutions that are engaged in extension of consumer credit that would be strengthened otherwise by informed credit use.

  • Consumer Product Safety Commission

    The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

  • Consumer Protection - Definition

    Consumer protection laws are designed to ensure fair competition and the free flow of truthful information in the marketplace. The laws are designed to prevent businesses that engage in fraud or specified unfair practices from gaining an advantage over competitors and may provide additional protection for the weak and those unable to take care of themselves. Consumer Protection laws are a form of government regulation which protects the interests of consumers.

  • Consumer Rights and Protection

    Consumer rights and responsabilities explained in the Lectric Law Library.

  • Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA)

    The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) is a United States federal law enacted as an amendment to the Truth in Lending Act (codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq.). Its purpose is to protect consumers from unfair billing practices and to provide a mechanism for addressing billing errors in "open end" credit accounts, such as credit card or charge card accounts.

  • Fair Credit Reporting Act

    The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a United States federal law that regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer information, including consumer credit information. Along with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), it forms the base of consumer credit rights in the United States. It was originally passed in 1970, and is enforced by the US Federal Trade Commission and private litigants.

  • Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

    The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), is a United States statute added in 1978 as Title VIII of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Its purposes are to eliminate abusive practices in the collection of consumer debts, to promote fair debt collection and to provide consumers with an avenue for disputing and obtaining validation of debt information in order to ensure the information's accuracy.[1] The Act creates guidelines under which debt collectors may conduct business, defines rights of consumers involved with debt collectors, and prescribes penalties and remedies for violations of the Act. It is sometimes used in conjunction with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

  • Federal Trade Commission - Consumer Complaints

    The Federal Trade Commission, the nation's consumer protection agency, collects complaints about companies, business practices, identity theft, and episodes of violence in the media.

  • Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)

    The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.

  • FTC - Consumer Information

    This section of the FTC website offers practical information on a variety of consumer topics. The information here can help you avoid rip-offs and exercise your consumer rights. Education is the first line of defense against fraud and deception; it can help you make well-informed decisions before you spend your money.

  • National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)

    NCLC is the nation’s consumer law expert, helping consumers, their advocates, and public policy makers use powerful and complex consumer laws on behalf of low-income and vulnerable Americans seeking economic justice.

Organizations Related to Consumer Law

  • Association for Consumer Research

    The mission of the Association for Consumer Research is to advance consumer research and facilitate the exchange of scholarly information among members of academia, industry, and government worldwide.

  • Better Business Bureau

    BBB’s mission is to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust. BBB accomplishes this mission by: * Creating a community of trustworthy businesses * Setting standards for marketplace trust * Encouraging and supporting best practices * Celebrating marketplace role models, and; * Denouncing substandard marketplace behavior.

  • Consumer Action

    During its more than three decades, Consumer Action has continued to serve consumers nationwide by advancing consumer rights, referring consumers to complaint-handling agencies through our free hotline, publishing educational materials, advocating for consumers in the media and before lawmakers, and comparing prices on credit cards, bank accounts and long distance services.

  • Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA)

    The Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) is the premier trade association representing the interests of the consumer specialty products industry – a dynamic industry that provides households, institutions, and industrial customers with products that help provide a cleaner and healthier environment.

  • Consumers International (CI)

    Consumers International (CI) is the world federation of consumer groups that, working together with its members, serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers. With over 220 member organisations in 115 countries, CI is building a powerful international movement to help protect and empower consumers everywhere. Founded in 1960, the organisation is now needed more than ever. This modern movement is essential to secure a fair safe and sustainable future for consumers in a global marketplace increasingly dominated by international corporations.

  • Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC)

    For more than 40 years, the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) has been a trusted one-stop source for answers to questions about consumer problems and government services.

  • National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA)

    The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) is a nationwide organization of more than 1000 attorneys who represent and have represented hundreds of thousands of consumers victimized by fraudulent, abusive and predatory business practices.

  • National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW)

    National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) is a coordinated consumer education campaign that encourages individuals across the country to take full advantage of their consumer rights.

  • National Consumers League

    The National Consumers League is America’s oldest consumer organization, representing consumers and workers on marketplace and workplace issues since our founding in 1899. NCL provides government, businesses, and other organizations with the consumer’s perspective on concerns including child labor, privacy, food safety, and medication information. NCL is home to the LifeSmarts program, Child Labor Coalition, NCL’s Fraud Center, and SOS Rx Coalition.

  • Organic Consumers Association (OCA)

    The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. The OCA deals with crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability and other key topics.

Publications Related to Consumer Law

  • Consumer World

    Consumer World was founded by Edgar Dworsky in 1995. A companion site spotlighting the loopholes in the fine print of advertising, MousePrint.org, was launched in 2006. In 2008, Edgar unveiled DealAlerter.com, a site that notifies shoppers when prices drop. Edgar has been a consumer advocate and consumer educator for the past 32 years.

  • Consumers Union (CU)

    Consumers Union (CU) is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. The organization was founded in 1936 when advertising first flooded the mass media. Consumers lacked a reliable source of information they could depend on to help them distinguish hype from fact and good products from bad ones. Since then CU has filled that vacuum with a broad range of consumer information. To maintain its independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising and no free samples and employs several hundred mystery shoppers and technical experts to buy and test the products it evaluates.

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HG.org Civil Rights Law Guides

Consumer Law is part of the Civil Rights law practice which also includes: Constitutional Law, Discrimination, Human Rights, Native Populations, and Privacy Law.