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.
Climax is a village in Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 791 at the 2000 census. The village is located within Climax Township on the northern boundary with Charleston Township, and is roughly 15 miles west of Battle Creek and 10 miles east of Kalamazoo. Climax shares a school district with the neighboring town of Scotts. Almost everything in Climax is located on the main cross streets, Main and Maple. The school, cemetery and Harvester restaurant all lie along South Main St. North Main boasts the relatively new music studio (housed in what used to be an independent hardware store), a convenience store, the village library, park, phone company and post office, the bank, Peace Community Church, a few homes, and the town newspaper: the Climax Crescent . Maple is almost entirely residential, with the exception of the United Methodist Church and Sinclair's Market.