Consumer Protection in the Affluent Society

Abstract

"Who is to be Protected from What ?" The U.S. Special Committee on Retail Instalment Sales, Consumer Credit, Small Loans and Usury, appointed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, in 1965 commenced their report with this question. With the plethora of "reforms" in the area of consumer protection which have been either enacted or proposed in recent years, one might have supposed that this question is now rather prosaic. It is, of course, clear that present reforms do reflect a recognition by the State of the need to protect the consumer, but simply to say this is not to have identified the underlying philosophy of consumer protection, if any. Why protect the consumer? Against what? What goal do these reforms represent a step towards? These questions are not as prosaic as they look. They have, however, to be clearly answered both in order to evaluate progress to the present, and to determine what remains to be done for the future.