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.
North Lakewood is a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located west of Arlington, east of Lake Goodwin, and north of the Tulalip Indian Reservation. North Lakewood is considered part of greater Smokey Point. Called "Lakewood" since the turn of the 20th Century, the name was changed after the Pierce County community of a similar name incorporated into the City of Lakewood in 1996. This soon created confusion with mail service, as there were now two communities sharing the name. To alleviate this problem, the United States Postal Service granted the Pierce County community the rights to use "Lakewood, Washington", since it was now an incorporated city, and changed the Snohomish County community's name to "North Lakewood", which was unincorporated at the time. This allowed the Snohomish County community to keep its Post Office. Since 2005, the portion of North Lakewood located inside the urban growth boundary has been part of the City of Marysville.