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.
Union Pier is an unincorporated community in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated between the Lake Michigan shore and the Galien River about five miles north of the Indiana state border. Union Pier is at coordinates 41°49′41″N 86°41′33″W / 41.82806°N 86.6925°W / 41.82806; -86.6925. The ZIP code is 49129 and the FIPS place code is 81400. During the summer of 1914 a colony of Chicago bohemians, including the writers Sherwood Anderson and Ben Hecht, vacationed at the "Camp's Cottages" (for the owner Eli Camp) on the Union Pier beach. The local residents were outraged by what they believed were the wild goings-on at "The Nudist Club," as they characterized it, particularly after two local men left their wives for women staying at Camp's. The locals made the situation sufficiently uncomfortable for the vacationers that they did not return the next year. Union Pier also has the distinction of being one of the only Harbor Country villages with its own 1 watt radio station, occasionally broadcasting at 87.9 FM using the moniker "Radio Mykros". Programming varies and includes talk and music, some of which is rather obscure and can contain clips from such bands as Nektar, Guru Guru, and SBB.