Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public,

against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law.
Such laws are intended to prevent businesses from engaging in fraud or specified unfair practices in
order to gain an advantage over competitors or to mislead consumers. They may also provide additional
protection for the general public which may be impacted by a product (or its production) even when
they are not the direct purchaser or consumer of that product. For example, government regulations
may require businesses to disclose detailed information about their products—particularly in areas
where public health or safety is an issue, such as with food or automobiles.

Consumer protection is linked to the idea of consumer rights and to the formation of consumer
organizations, which help consumers make better choices in the marketplace and pursue complaints
against businesses. Entities that promote consumer protection include government organizations (such
as the Federal Trade Commission in the United States), self-regulating business organizations (such as
the Better Business Bureaus in the US, Canada, England, etc.), and non-governmental organizations that
advocate for consumer protection laws and help to ensure their enforcement (such as consumer
protection agencies and watchdog groups).[citation needed]

A consumer is defined as someone who acquire goods or services for direct use or ownership rather
than for resale or use in production and manufacturing. Consumer interests can also serve consumers,
consistent with economic efficiency, but this topic is treated in competition law. Consumer protection
can also be asserted via non-government organization's and individuals as consumer activism.

Efforts made for protection of consumer's rights and interests are:

The right to satisfaction of basic needs

The right to safety

The right to be informed

The right to choose

The right to be heard

The right to redress

The right to consumer education

The right to a healthy environment

Consumer protection law or consumer law is considered as an area of law that regulates private law
relationships between individual consumers and the businesses that sell those goods and services.
Consumer protection covers a wide range of topics, including but not necessarily limited to product
liability, privacy rights, unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentation, and other
consumers/business interactions. It is a way of preventing frauds and scams from service and sales
contracts, eligible fraud, bill collector regulation, pricing, utility turnoffs, consolidation, personal loans
that may lead to bankruptcy. There have been some arguments that consumer law is also a better way
to engage in large-scale redistribution than tax law because it does not necessitate legislation and can
be more efficient, given the complexities of tax law.[1]

The following lists consumer legislation at the nation-state level. In the EU member state Germany,
there is also the applicability of law at the EU level to be considered; this applies on the basis of
subsidiarity.

The Nigerian Body that Protects consumer

The Nigerian government has a duty to protect its people from any form of harm to human health
through the use and purchase of items to meet daily needs. In light of this, the Federal Competition and
Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), whose aim is to protect and enhance consumers' interest
through information, education, and enforcement of the rights of consumers was established by an Act
of Parliament to promote and protect the interest of consumers over all products and services. In a
nutshell, it is empowered to eliminate hazardous & substandard goods from the market. Provide speedy
redress to consumer complaints and petition arisen from fraud, unfair practice and exploitation of the
consumer.

On 5 February 2019, the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, assented to the new Federal
Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Bill, 2018. Thus, the bill became a law of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria and binding on entities and organizations so specified in the Act.

The long title of the Act reads: "This Act establishes the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection
Commission and the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal for the promotion of competition in
the Nigerian market at all levels by eliminating monopolies, prohibiting abuse of dominant market
position and penalizing other restrictive trade and business practices." The Act further repealed the
hitherto Nigerian Consumer Protection Council Act and transferred its core mandate to the new
Commission.

References
Edit

Van Loo, Rory (1 November 2019). "Broadening Consumer Law: Competition, Protection, and
Distribution". Notre Dame Law Review. 95 (1): 211.

"L8078". www.planalto.gov.br. Retrieved 3 July 2019.

"L8078". www.planalto.gov.br. Retrieved 12 April 2020.

"DFR - BVerwGE 71, 183 - Transparenzliste". Archived from the original on 19 February 2007. Retrieved
11 July 2006.

"National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission". ncdrc.nic.in.

V. Balakrishna Eradi, "Consumer Protection and National Consumer Disputes Redress Commission"
Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. New Delhi: National Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission. Accessed 25 June 2013.

"(TAIWAN) CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW". 1 June 2011.

"Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China". law.moj.gov.tw.

Carol T. Juang, "The Taiwan Consumer Protection Law: Attempt to Protect Consumers Proves
Ineffective" Pacific Rim Law & Policy Association, 1997.

"EU law and the balance of competences: A short guide and glossary, 2012". Foreign & Commonwealth
Office. Retrieved 20 April 2016.

"New competition authority comes into existence". 1 October 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2020.

"Revised Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act" (PDF). 21 August 2010. Archived from the original
(PDF) on 21 August 2010.

"TITLE 6 - CHAPTER 25. PROHIBITED TRADE PRACTICES - Subchapter III. Deceptive Trade Practices".
delcode.delaware.gov.

"815 ILCS 510/ Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act". www.ilga.gov.

"Title 10, §1212: Deceptive trade practices". www.mainelegislature.org.