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.
Indio is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, located in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's desert region. It lies 26 miles (42 km) east of Palm Springs, 70 miles (113 km) east of Riverside, 83 miles (134 km) east of San Bernardino, and 125 miles (201 km) east of Los Angeles. The population was 49,116 at the 2000 census. The word indio is Spanish for Indian. Indio was once referred to as "the Hub of the Valley", the city Chamber of Commerce jingle in the 1970s.