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.
Newburgh is a city located in Orange County, New York, United States 60 miles (97 km) north of New York City, and 90 miles (140 km) south of Albany, on the Hudson River. The population was 28,259 at the 2000 census. Figures released by the U. S. Census Bureau in late June 2009 estimated that the population at that time was 28,101. Newburgh is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes all of Dutchess and Orange counties. The two-county MSA had a population of 621,517 at the 2000 census. A July 1, 2007 estimate placed the population at 669,915. Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown is also a component of the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area (CSA). The City of Newburgh is along the Hudson River, between the Town of Newburgh and the Town of New Windsor. Just east of the city, across the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, lies the city of Beacon, New York. The City of Newburgh is surrounded on the north and the west by the Town of Newburgh, of which it was a part prior to 1865. Census estimates in 2005 indicate that the population of the City of Newburgh had at that time dropped to 24,966 and increased in the Town of Newburgh to 30,508 thus making the Town more populous than the City for the first time in history. The entire southern boundary of the City of Newburgh is with the Town of New Windsor. Most of this boundary is formed by Quassaick Creek.