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.
Pine Island is a hamlet in the Town of Warwick in Orange County, New York, USA. It is the largest community in the Black Dirt Region. It has the ZIP Code 10969. It gets its name from being slightly elevated over the surrounding land. In the days before the nearby Wallkill River was rerouted to control flooding, it would often be an actual island for a period of time in the spring. The Pine Island Fire District is centered here with the main station located on County Route 1, and a sub-station in the Hamlet of Amity, and the Amity Fire Station.