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.
Dublin (formerly, Amador and Dougherty's Station) is a suburban city of the East (San Francisco) Bay region of Alameda County, California, United States. It is located along the north side of Interstate 580 at the intersection with Interstate 680, roughly 10 miles (16 km) east of Hayward, 6 miles west of Livermore and 25 miles (40 km) north of San Jose. The nearest major metropolitan area is that of Oakland, approximately 25 miles (40 km) to the west-northwest on Interstate 580. Because of this, Dublin is known as a "crossroads" of the Bay Area. The population was more than 46,000 according to the state of California's 2008 estimates. Dublin is home to the headquarters of Sybase, Inc and Arlen Ness, and is home to major financial services, Washington Mutual Bank and Franklin Resources. It was named after the city of Dublin in Ireland.