Consumer rights

“ As the driving force behind the richest, most prosperous country in the world, the United States' free market is a model for others to emulate. We must ensure that our system continues to emphasize the centrality of the consumer even as it becomes increasingly technology-oriented. Accordingly, last year, I was proud to add the latest element to the Consumer Bill of Rights-the right to service-which urges that convenience, courtesy, performance, and responsiveness remain hallmarks of the American marketplace. ”

“ I urge consumers, businesses, educators, community organizations, labor unions, the media, and government officials to identify, emphasize, and promote activities during National Consumers Week that draw attention to the consumer's rights under the Constitution. ”

“ Where, other than in the course of business, an individual, as heir or assignee of a consumer, receives goods or services, that individual has the same rights as the consumer to seek and obtain redress from the supplier under this Act. ”

“ National Consumers Week 1987 is dedicated to reminding us that the exercise of these rights helps to maintain the vigor of our economic system-creating positive pressure for better products, services, and warranties-and that consumer education is a lifelong process. ”

“ In order to protect consumers, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, the Consumer Federation of America, the American Association of Retired Persons, the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators, and the National Association of Attorneys General have joined forces to inform Americans about their rights as home shoppers, about merchant responsibilities, and about how to enjoy safely the benefits of shopping from home. ”

“ We will improve consumption policies and the consumption environment. We will accelerate the project to encourage retailers to open stores in more townships and villages, and encourage commercial chains to open more outlets in rural areas. We will intensify the development of consumption facilities and service networks in both urban and rural areas, rectify order in the market, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. We will promptly work out and introduce policies and measures to encourage consumption, and vigorously develop consumer credit. ”

“ Consumer education helps every American who enters the marketplace. When making a purchase, consumers should know their rights and should learn about goods and services before they buy. This knowledge allows consumers to make sound decisions and protects families and individuals from fraud and abuse. Consumer vigilance also prevents problems before they arise. During National Consumer Protection Week, we highlight consumer education efforts to help Americans make wise decisions. ”

“ They also deserve security for any personal information provided during the conduct of a transaction, whether in person or on the Internet. As we observe National Consumer Week, I urge the American people to learn more about their rights as responsible consumers and to reward those businesses that continue to give them a fair shake. ”

“ Consumers need to understand the market economy, both here and abroad, and their options for earning, spending, saving, and investing income. Increased consumer and economic education in schools, workshops, the media, and the distribution of informative materials from government and business give consumers a greater appreciation of their rights and responsibilities in our incomparable American economy. ”

“ Every citizen can benefit from knowing more about consumer laws, rights, and avenues of redress. Many people-including the young, the elderly and the poor-need help in learning about buying skills, financial management, resource conservation methods, and self-help or alternative solutions to economic constraints. ”

“ God forbid that the day should ever come when, in the American mind, the thought of man as a "consumer" shall submerge the old American thought of man as a creature of God, endowed with "unalienable rights." ”

“ But of greatest importance to consumers and private enterprise is protection against the marketing of goods that are hazardous to health or life, a fair hearing of complaints with appropriate remedies where justified, and dutiful consideration of consumer concerns at all levels of government. ”

“ Consumer Protection 1. The Parties recognise the importance of consumer protection policy and enforcement to creating efficient and competitive markets and enhancing consumer welfare in the free trade area. ”

“ It is universally conceded that combinations which engross or control the market of any particular kind of merchandise or commodity necessary to the general community, by suppressing natural and ordinary competition, whereby prices are unduly enhanced to the general consumer, are obnoxious not only to the common law but also to the public welfare. ”

“ When we cease to have competition at home and the law prohibits competition from abroad by protecting profits, there is no relief for the consumer except to cry out for government regulation. To my mind, there is no more reason or justice in the government attempting to protect the profits of the manufacturers and producers of this country than here would be to protect the profits of the merchant or the lawyer, the banker or the farmer, or the wages of the laboring man. ”

“ In this same process of evolution we are keeping before us the objectives of protecting, on the one hand, industry against chiselers within its own ranks, and, on the other hand, the consumer through the maintenance of reasonable competition for the prevention of the unfair sky-rocketing of retail prices. ”

“ It may not have occurred to you that it makes any difference what one's customers are, but it does in all regular and prolonged business. The condition of the customer determines how much he will buy, determines of what sort he will buy. Poor and ignorant people buy little and that of the poorest kind. The richest and the intelligent, having the more means to buy, buy the most, and always buy the best. Here, then, are the three liberties: liberty of the producer, liberty of the distributor, and liberty of the consumer. The first two need no discussion ”

“ Under the circumstances, it is safe to conclude that whenever the State undertakes to make goods or render services for which there is a demand it does so without regard to the wishes of the consumer. ”

“ The right to this release has been claimed by workers and by small enterprisers, especially by retail merchandisers, over centuries, and finds contemporary expression in legislation in three-quarters of the States. The nature of the injury which must be balanced against it is the economic disadvantage to the enterpriser, and the inconvenience to the consumer, which Sunday regulations impose upon those who choose to adhere to the Sabbatarian tenets of their faith. ”

“ Federal, State, and local agencies; private sector organizations; and consumer advocacy groups band together to encourage Americans to learn about the protections the law affords and to take full advantage of the resources available for consumers of every age. This year's theme for National Consumer Protection Week, "Nuts & Bolts: Tools for Today's Economy," focuses on the basic information consumers need as they face the opportunities and pitfalls of the marketplace. Every day, consumers make tough choices about saving, investing, and spending their hard-earned money. ”

“ Across our Nation and around the world, consumers are sending business an important message: there is no substitute for good service, the kind on which companies make their reputations. Under free enterprise, we consumers express our views through our everyday marketplace decisions and require businesses to adapt to our changing consumer choices. ”

“ I shall for this argument assume it as demonstrated that the increase of price which protection makes is paid by the consumer. This suggests the first great objection to protection, that it compels the consumer to pay more for goods than they are really worth, ostensibly to help the business of a producer. Now consumers constitute the vast majority of the people. The producers of protected articles are few in comparison with them. It is true that most men are both producers and consumers. ”

“ So, if two merchants going down town to their business agree in the street car that they will charge a certain amount for a barrel of flour or a ton of coal that week, this would probably be regarded as reasonable at the common law; but the common law, like these early statutes of England, looked primarily, if not exclusively, to the welfare of the consumer; they always speak of the common weal of the people, or of combinations to the general hurt of the people, and general combinations to fix prices or to limit output are therefore always unlawful ”

“ Consumer’s right to sue for unfair practice
6.— (1) A consumer who has entered a consumer transaction involving an unfair practice may commence an action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the supplier. ”

“ The action of the National Consumer's League in allowing its label to be placed only on goods made under decent conditions of work and of wages and in pledging its members to give the preference to such goods has produced some result, probably, and only requires that all consumers support it. ”

“ We must also act to prevent the deception of the American consumer--requiring all packages to state clearly and truthfully their contents--all interest and credit charges to be fully revealed--and keeping harmful drugs and cosmetics away from our stores. ”

“ If you wish the consumer to be guaranteed, both as to value and as to healthfulness, you are forced to know and to determine all that constitutes good and honest production, to be continually at the heels of the manufacturer, and to guide him at every step. ”

“ Within the limitations of its right to regulate interstate commerce, Congress manifestly is aiming at the contents of the package as it shall reach the consumer, for whose protection the act was primarily passed, and it is the branding upon the package which contains the article intended for consumption itself which is the subject-matter of regulation. ”

“ If it is proved, that, provided employers neglect their duties and the Consuming Class can do anything to fulfill them, there is an obligation upon the Consuming Class to carry out these duties—if this is established, it is only necessary when a particular case presents itself to ask: Have the men through whose labor this Consumer is benefiting been unjustly treated by their employers, and can this Consumer, without a disproportionately grave inconvenience, do anything to help them? ”

“ As our business methods have created conditions beyond the control of the individual consumer it follows that we must take concerted action, and make and enforce whatever laws are necessary. This is done partly through the Federal government, and partly through state laws and municipal ordinances. ”

“ There is no regulatory framework that covers taste and decency issues in retailing in the way that these are covered for the advertising and broadcasting industries. Legislation through the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 covers only misleading or unfair trading so the Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards Officers, the main retail regulators, cannot consider issues beyond this remit. ”

“ VI. Commerce has for its necessary conditions the liberty of contractors [141] and the equivalence of products exchanged; now, value having for its expression the sum of the time and of the expense which each product costs, and liberty being inviolable, the laborers necessarily remain equal in wages, as they are in duties and in rights.
“VII. Products are purchased only by products; now, the condition of every exchange being the equivalence of products, profits from exchange are impossible and unjust. ”

“ In recognition of the importance of the Constitution to American consumers in assuring us the many blessings we enjoy today, the theme for National Consumers Week 1987 shall be "Consumers Celebrate the Constitution." ”

“ Food products pass through too many hands between the farmer and the consumer. Every unnecessary middle-man should be eliminated. No one should be allowed to take a profit, and thereby increase the cost of a product, unless he performs a legitimate service to the consumer. ”

“ It is clear that the greatest fairness for consumers can be achieved through the active cooperation of business, government, and consumers themselves working to insure equity, increased competition, and safety in our free market economy. ”