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.
Cottageville (also Moores Mill, Rhodess Mill, or Wrights Mill) is an unincorporated community in western Jackson County, West Virginia, United States. It lies along West Virginia Route 331 northwest of the city of Ripley, the county seat of Jackson County. Established in 1858, its elevation is 594 feet (181 m). Although Cottageville is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 25239. It also is the site of the annual Jackson County Junior Fair. Michael Coleman, a well known early Indian fighter, was killed and buried in the area, according to a historical marker placed by the state of WV. The wooden Grist Mill located here since the 1840's burned to the ground in the summer of 1965. Its foundation stones remain. It had remained in operation full time until 1930, part-time until 1937. Cottageville was a commercial center with a bank, newspaper, tannery, blacksmith, several stores, a railroad station on the B & O and many other businesses in the early part of the twentieth century. Its heyday faded with the closing of the mill and the improvement of roads in the county. The B & O pulled up its tracks to the county seat, Rippley, in the mid-nineteen-sixties. Less than a mile from the old town, the county operated what folks called the "poor farm," an early version of a welfare commune. That closed in the thirties with the New Deal. That land is now the Jackson County Junior Fairgrounds.