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.
Winesburg is an unincorporated community in southwestern Paint Township, Holmes County, Ohio, United States. The town sits on the crest of a hill in the Amish country of Ohio, with a quaint downtown containing antique shops. It lies along U.S. Route 62. The town was founded in the early 19th century and originally named Weinsberg, after Weinsberg in Germany. The spelling was changed to Winesburg by postal authorities in 1833 when a post office was opened there. It is not the setting of the novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, a collection of inter-related fictional short stories about members of the town set in the early 20th century. (Clyde, Ohio, is the town that Sherwood Anderson grew up in, and is the basis for Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio.)