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.
Powell is a city in Delaware County, Ohio, United States. The population was 6,247 at the 2000 census. The community was first settled around 1801, two years before Ohio became a state. It was named "Middlebury" at the time, because the first settlers came from the Middlebury, Connecticut area. In 1857, Judge Thomas Powell established the first post office in the community, and the residents decided to adopt his name. Powell was finally incorporated as a municipality in 1947. The population remained small until the late 1980s, when residential development expanding from the northern Columbus metropolitan area reached Powell. In twenty years, the population rose from less than 400 to over 6,000. In July 2005, CNN Money and Money magazine ranked Powell 18 on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States. The general Powell area is usually interpreted to mean not only the incorporated City of Powell, but also the adjoining unincorporated areas of Liberty and Orange townships.