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.
Racine is an unincorporated community in Newton County, Missouri, United States. It is located along the Frisco RR tracks between Neosho and Seneca, Mo in Lost Creek Valley. Racine is on Route 86 about 6 miles west of Neosho and ten miles south of Joplin and about 5 miles northeast of Seneca and the Oklahoma state line. Some homes, a post office, a fire station, and a couple of businesses are located here. Many of the original settlers who arrived before the Civil War are buried in Burkhardt Cemetery just northeast of town at the junction of what is now known as Juniper and Jasmine Drives. Due to its proximity to many of the back-roads into the "dry state" of Oklahoma, illegal alcohol and low-tax tobacco was bootlegged through this part of Missouri up to the 1960s. There are several churches despite the small size of the town: one Apostolic Church and two Christian churches. The community is part of the Joplin, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.