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.
The Town of Parker is a Home Rule Municipality in Douglas County, Colorado, United States. As a self-declared "Town" under the Home Rule Statutes, Parker is the most populous town in the county. In recent years, Parker has become a commuter town at the southeasternmost corner of the Denver Metropolitan Area. As of the U.S. Census 2000, the town population was 23,558. Its population as of 2008 is estimated at 43,767, over 145 times its population of 285 when Parker incorporated in 1981. Parker is now the 17th most populous municipality in the State of Colorado. The town's rapid growth in recent decades is often credited to Jim Nicholson, whose fourteen years spent developing the area earned him the town's first "Cornerstone Award".