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.
Gabriels is a hamlet in the Town of Brighton in Franklin County, New York inside the Adirondack Park near Paul Smiths, New York. It is the site of Camp Gabriels, a minimum security state prison. The site of Gamp Gabriels was originally built as The Gabriels Sanatorium. opened in 1897. The site was later purchased by Paul Smiths College. The site was sold to the Department of Corrections in 1982. Both the Sanatorium and the Hamlet were named for Catholic Bishop Henry Gabriels of Ogdensburg, New York. The hamlet grew up as the commercial center around a train depot serving the Adirondack Division of the New York Central line. The station existed primarily to deliver vacationers to the nearby resort at Paul Smiths, New York. In 1961, New York Central abandoned the Adirondack Division from Malone Junction to Gabriels. Today, the hamlet remains the commercial center for the town of Brighton, with a Post Office, small businesses, a Roman Catholic Church, and farms.