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.
Pearl River is a hamlet, in the Town of Orangetown Rockland County, New York, United States located east of Nauraushaun; north of the state of New Jersey; south of Nanuet and west of Blauvelt. The population was 15,553 at the 2000 census. Pearl River is also the site of One Blue Hill Plaza, Rockland County's first commercial skyscraper with 21 stories of office space. Pearl River is 17 miles north of Manhattan, and north of the New Jersey border and the first (traveling north) of three New York stops on New Jersey Transit's Pascack Valley Line. In 1906, Ernest Lederle, a former New York City commissioner founded Lederle Laboratories on a 99-acre (400,000 m) farm which now encompasses 550 acres (2.2 km) and 40 buildings employing 3,200 workers.