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.
Point Pleasant is a city in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. The population was 4,637 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Mason County and the principal city of the Point Pleasant, WV-OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. Point Pleasant is most famous for the 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge, which killed 46 people. The town is also noted for the October 10, 1774, Battle of Point Pleasant, in which Virginia militiamen led by Colonel Andrew Lewis defeated an Algonquin Confederation of Shawnee and Mingo warriors led by Shawnee Chief Cornstalk. The event is celebrated in Point Pleasant as the first battle of the American Revolutionary War, and in 1908 the US Senate authorized erection of a monument to commemorate Point Pleasant as the site of the first battle of the American Revolution. Most historians, however, regard it not as a battle of the Revolution but instead as a part of Lord Dunmore's War. It was the final home of Confederate Brigadier-General John McCausland, the next-to-last Confederate General to die. He died at his farm at Grimm's Landing on January 23, 1927, and is buried in nearby Henderson. Point Pleasant is located at 38°51′27″N 82°7′43″W / 38.8575°N 82.12861°W / 38.8575; -82.12861 (38.857527, -82.128571).