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.
For the city in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, see Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown is a town in Bleckley, Laurens, Twiggs, and Wilkinson Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia, although primarily in Wilkinson County. The population was 287 at the 2000 census. The Twiggs County portion is part of the Macon Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the Laurens County portion is part of the Dublin Micropolitan Statistical Area. The remaining Wilkinson and Bleckley County portions are not part of any metropolitan or micropolitan area.