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.
Bonfield is a village in Kankakee County, Illinois, United States. Bonfield's population was 364 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Kankakee-Bradley, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. Although founded by quarryman Thomas Verkler, the village was named after Thomas Bonfield, an attorney for the Kankakee & Seneca Railroad Company, which established a depot in the village. A name was needed for this depot, someone suggested "Bonfield", and that's what stuck. The railroad has long since disappeared into history but it had been on Johnson Street. Old railroad spikes and ties might still be found around the limestone quarry. The depot was moved about a mile and a half south of the village and converted to a barn, which remains today (12/31/2007). The town originally had a high school, but it burned down in the early 1930s. Students then went to Herscher High School in Herscher, Illinois.