Consumer Protection
The Right to Be Heard
The Right to Redressal
The Right to Consumer Education
Did you know?
“After marrying into a significant amount of debt, Peggy thought she was doing the “safe thing” when she accepted Chase’s offer to pay off $20,000 worth of credit card debt at $500/month. Then, out of nowhere, Peggy received a letter that her monthly payment was going up to $900.
When she called Chase, they told her that the “Change of Terms” was being applied to everyone.
To meet the new requirement, Peggy had to take $15,000 from her husband’s 401K plan.
“It’s a struggle and it shouldn’t have been a struggle,” she said.
Peggy is one member of a class action lawsuit against Chase filed by national litigation firm Girard Gibbs in July 2009 alleging that Chase increased monthly minimum payments on loans provided to over a million consumers.”
Consumer Protection Laws aim to ultimately stop unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices by collecting complaints and forming investigations based off these. The process also includes suing companies and people who break the law, developing more stable rules and educating business and people properly about the rights they have.
The Right to Safety
The Right to Be Informed
The Right to Choose
Employee Protection
This includes the right to privacy, fair compensation and freedom from discrimination based on age, looks, gender, race or religion during the hiring process. All employees are protected through the Employee Rights Act 1996. The main rule is that employees should feel safe whenever they are at their work as this can ultimately affect their work performance and quality.
Employees also have the right to time off work for doctors appointments, as well as the right to maternity leave
%
Increase in Minimum wage over the last 10 years
%
Increase in the Cost of Living from 2008 to 2013
Types of Workplace Discrimination
- Retaliation 48.8%
- Race 33.9%
- Disability 31.9%
- Sex 30.4%
- Age 21.8%
- Nationality 9.8%
- Religion 4.4%
- Colour 3.8%
Environmental Protection
Vehicle Contributions to Global Pollution
- Petrol Cars 35.8%
- Diesel Cars 23.8%
- HGV 21.4%
- Diesel LGV 14%
- Buses 3.8%
- Petrol LGV 0.65%
Hours to decompose a plastic bottle
The environmental protection act 1990 is an Act that the UK Parliament created to define, within England, Wales and Scotland, the structure, need and authority for waste management and control of emissions let into the environment which overall cause pollution. The 5 major laws involved in environmental protection include; The Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act, The Safe Drinking Water Act, Resource Conversation and Recovery Act. The Clean Air Act was introduced in 1956 in response to the Smog of the 1950s which caused thousands of deaths. Since this, these rules have been put in place to prevent anything like this happening again, as well as trying to keep the planet unpolluted and planting more trees to keep the air fresh and oxygenised.
Trees are destroyed per minute
Competition Policy
%
Of a companies annual worldwide turn over in fines
DID YOU KNOW?
Consumers have been warned after more than 29,000 Facebook users were fooled by a fake competition purporting to be giving away free holidays to Center Parcs Longleat.
The post claimed that 30 lucky winners would be selected from those who shared, liked or commented on it, and featured a photo of a man, claiming to be “Center Parcs CEO Mark Frendon”, surrounded by golden envelopes – allegedly containing the free holidays.
However, despite appearing legitimate to thousands of people on social media, the post was revealed to be a fake. Someone even claimed the photo was of a man involved with putting the names in the Oscars envelopes, doctored specifically for the scam.
Competition policy was put in place in the UK to prevent and reduce the abuse of monopoly power. Abuse of monopoly power can lead to market failure and be against the public interest. Therefore, government policy is put in place for the overall welfare and interests of the consumer. The 2 main types of behaviour they investigate are; collusive behaviour and abuse of market power. It is a law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition policy was also emerged in the United States in the late 19th century, when it became apparent that competition was prompting larger firms to try to lessen competitive pressures through the formation of cartels, with detrimental effects on smaller firms and consumers.
Health and Safety Act
DID YOU KNOW?
“A food manufacturer was fined after one of his cleaner employees had 2 of their fingers severed in a faulty potato processing machine at its Telford Site. Swancote Foods pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 11 of the provision and use of work equipment rules. The company has since been fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £5,614 in costs. Ultimately the lesson was not learnt that you must comply with any law or act to maintain a successful and safe business. “
Due to Act 1974, the main legal responsibility for employers is to keep their employees, temps, casual workers, visitors, clients and the general public safe and make sure anyone affected by processes in the workplace is ensured to be safe.
You are also expected to protect employees once they come back to the workplace if they have become more vulnerable to risk due to disability or injuries. Workers must co-operate with employers and co-workers to help everyone meet their legal requirements. The Act contains powers for the Health and Safety Executive to enforce these employer duties and penalties for any non-compliance.