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.
Marble Hill is a fourth-class city in central Bollinger County in Southeast Missouri in the United States. Located at the intersection of State Highway 34 and State Highway 51, it is the largest city in Bollinger and serves as the county seat . As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 1,502; a 2008 estimate, however, showed the population to be 1,482, a decrease of 1.33%. The city was officially organized in July 1851 and is named after a marble-like rock. Marble Hill is part of the Cape Girardeau–Jackson, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area.