Consumer Rights

As a consumer in this country, you have legal rights that protect you in all your business transactions.  Many laws have been passed at both the state and federal levels to make sure that businesses act fairly with their customers. Each year more consumer protection laws are passed  as proof that left alone, the marketplace would operate totally as “buyer beware,” with a vulnerable public being victimized.

Federal consumer protection laws are mainly enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and the United States Department of Justice.  At the state level, the Illinois Attorney General enforces many state consumer protection laws. However, don’t have to wait for governmental bureaucracy to right their wrongs. In many instances, citizens can file lawsuits when businesses have wronged them.

Suits for breach of contract are available, as well as private civil actions under Deceptive Trade laws, lemon laws, and a laws prohibiting fraud. In many cases, punitive damages will be available as a means of discouraging similar bad acts in the future.