 |  Business and Society: Corporate Strategy, Public Policy, Ethics, 10/e James Post,
Boston University
Anne T Lawrence,
San Jose State University
James Weber,
Duquesne University
Consumer Protection
Chapter Summary- The U.S. consumer movement represents an attempt to promote the interests of consumers by balancing the amount of market power held by sellers and buyers.
- The four key consumer rights are the rights to safety, to be informed, to choose, and to be heard. Recent discussion has focused on consumers' right to privacy.
- Consumer protection laws and regulatory agencies attempt to assure that consumers are treated fairly, receive adequate information, are protected against potential hazards, have free choices in the market, and have legal recourse when problems develop. They also protect children's privacy online.
- Rapidly evolving information technologies have given new urgency to the issue of consumer privacy. Three approaches to safeguarding online privacy are consumer self-help, industry self-regulation, and protective legislation.
- Business has complained about the number of product liability lawsuits and the high cost of insuring against them. But efforts to reform product liability laws have been opposed by consumer groups and lawyers representing victims of dangerous or defective products.
- Socially responsible companies have responded to the consumer movement by giving serious consideration to consumer problems, increasing channels of communication with customers, instituting arbitration procedures to resolve complaints, and recalling defective products. They have also pursued voluntary codes of conduct and total quality management in an effort to meet, and even anticipate, consumers' needs.
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education