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.
Panacea is a small unincorporated community in Wakulla County, Florida, United States of America. It is in the Tallahassee metro area. Its elevation is seven feet above sea level. Panacea is an historic fishing and tourist waterfront village located along Dickerson Bay in Wakulla County between the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and Apalachicola National Forest southwest of the state capitol of Tallahassee. The establishment of Panacea began with the Panacea Mineral Springs, a concentration of small sulphurous springs known for their ‘healing attributes’. There were hotels, restaurants, health spas, baths, bottled water for drinking, boardwalks, piers and pavilions over the bay, all oriented around the healing power of the springs and bringing prosperity until the Depression. Most of the development was destroyed by a hurricane in 1928, and the springs property soon fell into neglect. For generations commercial fishermen have landed their catches at Rock Landing. The commercial fishing culture has been devastated by the net ban legislation, and the two hundred odd boats that once landed there have been reduced to a mere twenty. The remaining fishermen still land their catches of blue crab, oysters, pink and white shrimp, mullet, trout, and grouper at the county’s Rock Landing dock.