Six Rights of the Consumer

Six Rights of the Consumer

Grantham University

Consumer protection laws are meant to protect consumers from unfair business practices. The six basic consumer rights are the right to be heard, the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, the right to a healthy environment, and the right of satisfaction of basic needs. Consumer protections are needed to protect the consumer from predatory business practices, deceptive marketing practices, and financial exploitation. These laws also protect businesses themselves by enacting anti-trust and copyright legislation.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech to Congress outlining his four basic rights of consumers. The original four rights of consumers outlined by President Kennedy were the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. These consumer rights have been expanded over the years, but economic turmoil in recent times lead to the passage of sweeping reform of the financial industry for consumer protection in response.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in passed in 2010. This legislation was enacted as a response to the economic crisis of 2008, caused by business practices by the financial and mortgage sector. This recession was considered the Great Recession as it was the worst the country had seen since the Great Depression. “This collapse was fueled by a corrupt system of faulty mortgages that exploited families to the benefit of big banks. Hard-working Americans lost their jobs and their homes, while Wall Street got off with a bailout paid by us taxpayers” (Goodyear and Risch, 2017). The legislation also created the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection or CFPB to regulate consumer financial products, such as mortgages, credit cards, and student loans. It also enforces compliance with these regulations. The CFPB is now a critical component of how consumers can learn about their consumer rights and also allows provides information and help in remedying violation of those rights. Education of your consumer rights is the first step in protecting yourself.

The right to be heard enables consumers to speak out about a businesses’ service and

products. Consumers can file complaints with organizations such as the Better Business

Bureau or the CFPB to possibly receive resolution to your problem and also alerting other consumers to the business practices of these companies. There are advocates that feel that contracts that include arbitration clauses can diminish the right to be heard. “Growing public awareness about this usurping of rights has forced some corporations to back away from efforts to unilaterally impose arbitration” (Barnes, 2015)

The right to safety means that consumers should be protected from harm’s way caused by

unsafe or faulty products. The establishment of The Consumer Protection Act of 1972

gave the United States Consumer Protection Commission the authority to develop safety

standards and the authority to recall and ban unsafe products. These include very

important products such as children’s cribs and chemicals that could be very dangerous. Other products such as prescription drugs, are monitored for safety by the Food and Drug Administration.

The right to be informed means that the consumer has the right to be presented with

accurate information on ingredients in products and honest advertising claims. Business

cannot knowingly give consumers inaccurate or misleading information to increase sales.

The consumer has legal recourse if the company engaged in misleading marketing plans.

The right to choose means consumers have a variety of products to choose from when

shopping. Consumers should be given a variety of products and/or services to encourage

competition among business and preventing monopolies and price fixing of products.

The right to a healthy environment means that consumers have the right to live and

working in a healthy environment. This is possible through government regulation of

workplace safety requirements and the enforcement of pollution and other environmental

issues by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The right to a healthy environment means that consumers have the right to live and

working in a healthy environment. This is possible through government regulation of

workplace safety requirements and the enforcement of pollution and other environmental

issues by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The right to satisfaction of basic needs means that consumers have the right to essential

goods and services such as healthcare, education, and public utilities. This can even mean the right to clothing and shelter. Many would argue that this is hard to enforce and more attention should be brought to issues such as homelessness in this country.

Consumer rights are a very important issue that we should not take for granted. Recently, the Department of Justice under the Trump Administration filed a motion questioning the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, stating that the President should have more control over the agency. Critics argue that “independence from political influence is crucial for a consumer watchdog regulator” (Campbell, 2017) I feel that the CFPB is a very important component of ensuring consumer rights and it would be in the interest of all Americans for this to remain a nonpartisan issue.

References

Barnes, Lauren Guth. How Mandatory Arbitration Agreements and Class Action

Waivers Undermine Consumer Rights and Why We Need Congress to Act.

Harvard Law & Policy Review. 2015, Vol 9 Issue 2, p329-354. Retrieved from

EBSCOhost.

Campbell, Barbara. Trump administration files motion aimed at controlling consumer protection agency. NPR. 17 Mar 2017. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2017/03/17/520204967/trump-administration-files-motion-aimed-at-controling-consumer-protection-agency

Goodyear, Erin and Risch. Why we must defend consumer protection regulations. St. Louis Post Dispatch. 30 Mar 2017. http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/why-we-must-defend- c consumer-protection-regulations/article_09938c1b-2474-502f-856f-ed7e4bf7a5e3.html