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.
Dufur is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 588 at the 2000 census. It is a farming community, with wheat being an important crop, along with tree fruit and grapes. Dufur was incorporated on February 10, 1893 and named after Andrew J. Dufur and his brother Enoch Burnham Dufur. In 1859 they began raising stock on 600 acres (2.4 km) of land located where the city now stands. On the second full weekend of August, Dufur holds its annual Threshing Bee, a harvest festival celebrating the local agricultural economy. The festival includes demonstrations of horse-drawn harvesting equipment, and a steam tractor that powers a belt-driven threshing machine.