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.
Ringwood is a village in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. The Ringwood post office was established in the early 1900s to provide post office boxes for local industrial firms and residents located on the far northern edge of McHenry. In the late 1980s, Johnsburg, which has no post office, annexed major portions of unincorporated McHenry County. Ringwood was incorporated as a village on 15 November 1994 in an attempt to maintain its small-town environment. The population was 471 at the 2000 census.