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.
White Pine is an unincorporated community in Ontonagon County the U.S. state of Michigan. White Pine is located at 46°45′14″N 89°35′03″W / 46.75389°N 89.58417°W / 46.75389; -89.58417 in Carp Lake Township between Bergland, Michigan and Silver City, Michigan, and east of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. The Copper Range Company operated a copper mine in White Pine. It was a station on the Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Paul Railway. Thomas H. Wilcox, a mining engineer found mass copper in the Mineral River and formed the White Pine Copper Company to mine it. The settlement was given a post office as "White Pine Mine" in June 1915. The White Pine ZIP code 49971 is a P.O. Box only office serving two noncontiguous areas in Carp Lake Township.