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.
Falls Village is a village in the town of Canaan, Connecticut. Because Falls Village is the town center and principal constituent village in Canaan, the entire town is often referred to as "Falls Village. " The Falls Village post office is assigned zip code 06031, which encompasses the entire town of Canaan. In 1979 the Falls Village District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district. The district represents about 70 acres that were built in the middle of the 19th century as a result of the area being selected as a station stop for the Housatonic Railroad in the early 1830s. Newer buildings around the junction of U.S. Route 7 and Route 126 are excluded. The district includes examples of Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne architecture. It includes 71 buildings and the canal built to harness water power from the Great Falls northwest of the village. The district is bounded on the south by the east-west portion of Railroad Street, on the east by the rear property lines of houses fronting Beebe Hill Road, on the north by the rear property lines of houses fronting Brewster Road, and on the west by the Housatonic Railroad tracks (with a bulge in the northwest to include the unused 1851 canal between Water Street and the railroad tracks).