User:Shenglintan/Consumer protection

Since the concept of consumer protection was first introduced in 1962 by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, there are more and more following laws enacted to protect the consumers. And many important people made contributions to Consumer Protection. To be more specific, there were many particular laws in different states of the United States that contributing to protecting the consumer's rights. On the contrary, there were also counterexamples of consumer protection. In Spain, laws were existing to protect the consumers' rights in 2013, but due to the uncertainty and inadequacy of the laws, the consumers were not properly protected by the laws.

History of Consumer Protection
President Kennedy

Consumer protection not only exists in modern society but also exist in the previous era. The first person who presented the concept of Consumer Protection is John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.

He introduced the concept of consumer protection in a special speech to the Congress on March 15th, 1962. He not only emphasized protecting the consumer's interest but also mentioned four basic rights of consumers which include:

Based on his discussion, consumer protection was treated more important, and lead to the following legislation of consumer protection. As a result, March 15th was set up to celebrate World Consumer Rights Day. President Kennedy did even more to push the development of consumer protection.
 * 1) Right to Safety
 * 2) Right to be Informed
 * 3) Right to be Heard
 * 4) Right to Choose

In Lizabeth Cohen's book "A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America", Cohen wrote that president Kennedy launched the third wave of consumer movement in 20 century.

He stated in the President's message that, although the consumers were in charge of two-third of spending in the economy at that time, they are not well-organized and their views were not heard. Then, President Kennedy claimed to make new actions to protect the consumers and the public interests more effective. Based on that, President Kennedy was fulfilling one of his promises on the campaign trail in Fall 1960. He promised that he intends to be the high-power supporter and lobbyist of consumers. And this promise attracted Intense enthusiasm from the audience of the campaign.

Ralph Nader

Another irreplaceable person who had a great contribution to consumer protection is Ralph Nader. Nader is the author of the book "Unsafe at Any Speed". This book helped prevented many vehicle accidents and injuries and deaths by pointing out the faulty design of vehicles. By writing the book "Unsafe at Any Speed", he became one of the reformers of consumer protection in the United States.

Consumer Protection in the Different States of the United States
Different countries have their own laws and regulation of consumer protection. However, to be more specific, consumer protection laws are also different among different states of the United States. The state government may enact their particular laws to protect the consumers.

Here are some examples of consumer protection laws in different states of the United States.

Law that protects the consumer
Pennsylvania's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law(UTPCPL) enacted a law to protect the rights of non-Pennsylvania's residents. The UTPCPL declared that the non-Pennsylvania residents can prosecute the Pennsylvania-headquartered business for any fraud or deceptive business practices. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court made this decision based on the suggestion from UTPCPL that, there should not be a geographic limitation or residency requirement for people when they are doing trade or commerce. As the result, the new law helped consumers to protect their rights, and the companies in Pennsylvania have to take more potential responsibilities when doing business.

Example
After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided to enact the law to allow non-Pennsylvania's residents to sue the Pennsylvania-headquartered businesses, there is a real-world example that happened.

A citizen and resident of Washington DC named Jobe Danganan(Danganan) contracted with the Pennsylvania-based company Guardian Protection Services to get security equipment and services for his home in Washington DC. After a while, he moved to California and no longer need the services from the Guardian Protection Services. He wants to cancel his unexpired 3-year contract with the Guardian Protection Services, but he still got billed from them. Then, he sued the company to the state court, and finally, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted his request of suing.

Florida
Florida Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division

Lawson is the director of the Florida Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division that contributing to protecting the rights of consumers. He successfully solved many consumer protection-related cases which include deceptive advertising, fraudulent financial practices, and travel-related scams. Based on the contribution of Lawson, the Florida Consumer Protection Division protected over $450 million in judgments and settlements, and as the result, the division was awarded the Federal Trade Commission's first-of-kind "Partner Award" for its contribution to consumer protection.

Moreover, Linda Goldstein, who is the chair of the firm's Advertising, Marketing, and Media practice, presented that Florida is a well-known area of its level of consumer protection and it's intensive supervision and enforcement on the deceptive practices

Counterexample of Consumer Protection
Although there were many successful examples of governments or organizations that enacted laws to protect the rights of consumers, there were counterexamples that existed.

In 2013, Spain did not have sufficient articles of law to protect the consumer's rights. Said by the European Union(EU) Court, the existing law at that time was uncertain and inadequate. When consumers purchase goods and encounter the problem that the goods are not conforming to the contract of sale, the consumers cannot use the law to protect their rights. The law existing then is uncertain to judge if the lack of conformity of the product is minor, and this will cause consumers to fail to protect their rights. As the result, the European Court Of Justice (ECJ) asked the Spanish judiciary to fix this problem.

There was an example that can show the problem of Spanish Law then. Duarte Hueros was a consumer who bought a car from the company Autociba for 14,320. After buying the car, she found that the vehicle had a water leaking problem. She tried several times to try to repair the defect, but it was not a success. After that, she asked the Autociba to replace a new vehicle for him but the Autociba refused. Then, she sued Autociba, and want to cease the contract and get her money back. However, the Spanish court denied her request because they thought the defect in the vehicle was too minor to cease the contract.

Reference

 * 1) Sekhar, Sonika (2018-11-19). "The History of Consumer Protection". Law Times Journal. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
 * 2) "Consumer Protection: Pennsylvania's consumer protection statute allows nonresidents to sue Pennsylvania companies for out-of-state transactions." Business Torts Reporter, vol. 30, no. 7, May 2018, p. 144+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A541045317/ITOF?u=euge94201&sid=ITOF&xid=846cbb36 . Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.
 * 3) "Manatt Strengthens Consumer Protection Bench in New York." Marketing Weekly News, 14 May 2016, p. 252. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A451763418/ITOF?u=euge94201&sid=ITOF&xid=cd933dc2 . Accessed 4 Dec. 2020.
 * 4) "CONSUMERS : SPANISH CONSUMER PROTECTION LAWS INADEQUATE, SAYS ECJ." Europe Environment, 11 Oct. 2013, p. 343206. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A345730588/ITOF?u=euge94201&sid=ITOF&xid=909997f1 . Accessed 4 Dec. 2020.
 * 5) Lizabeth Cohen. A Consumers’ Republic : The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. Vintage, 2004. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=725445&site=ehost-live&scope=site.