Consumer protection refers to the laws designed to aid retail consumers of goods and services that have been improperly manufactured, delivered, performed, handled, or described. Such laws provide the retail consumer with additional protections and remedies not generally provided to merchants and others who engage in business transactions, on the premise that the consumers do not enjoy a sufficient bargaining position with respect to the businessmen with whom they deal and therefore should not be strictly limited by the legal rules that govern recovery for damages among businessmen. The overarching goal is to protect individuals and the interest of the public in general from unfair and misleading activity in business and commerce (such as false advertising and deceptive trade practices) and scams perpetrated by criminals (such as identity theft and pyramid schemes) that harm a substantial number of consumers.
Artois (formerly, Germantown) is an unincorporated community in Glenn County, California. It is located 5 miles (8 km) north of Willows, at an elevation of 167 feet (51 m), in the northern Sacramento Valley of California. It is located on the former US Highway 99W, and is bypassed to the west by Interstate Highway 5. It is served by the California Northern Railroad, formerly the west Sacramento Valley line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Its coordinates are approximately 39°37' N 122°12' W. The ZIP code for Artois is 95913, and its population (ZIP code area, 2000 census) is 209. The community is inside area code 530. The name stems from the ancient province in France where the method of boring artesian wells was first adopted. Artois was formerly named Germantown, and petitions to change the Germantown post office name were successful with Artois adopted on May 21, 1918. Local belief is that a World War I troop train stopped to water at Gemantown and a riot insued when the troops took offense at the name. The town was then renamed after the battles of Artois. The Germantown post office opened in 1877, and changed its name to 1918.