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.
Eltopia is an unincorporated community in Franklin County, Washington, United States, located about 15 miles north of Pasco, along U.S. Route 395. This arid area of south Franklin County was originally inhabited by Native Americans, who traded with Lewis and Clark when they passed through the Columbia Basin in 1805. After the Yakima War of the late 1850s, settlers began to arrive in the region. The first settlers were the cattle ranchers who wanted the vast rangelands available, and those panning for gold in the nearby Columbia river at Ringold (variously Ringgold and Ringgold Bar). In the late 1870s settlement began in earnest in Ainsworth at the site of present-day Pasco. The railroad soon followed, and Northern Pacific established a station at Eltopia in 1881. The Peach orchards were common in the area, and wheat was a major crop as well. By 1902, there were enough settlers in the area that a town site was platted, but Eltopia was never been officially incorporated as a city. The story is told that the name comes from an incident among the railroad workers building the town. when a storm washed away some work that had been done, a Cockney worker commented that, "There will be hell to pay".