Consumer Protection - Assignment Example

This rule does not aim at shielding sellers who involve themselves in bad faith or fraudulent dealings by misleading, or false representations concerning the condition or quality of certain goods. It merely suggests that a buyer must judge, examine and test a good considered for buying. The current trend in laws protecting customers has reduced the efficiency of this rule. Even though, the consumer is still obligated to inspect goods upon buying them, the seller is being given more responsibilities, and the caveat venditor principle meaning "let the seller beware" has now become extremely prevalent.

There exists a legal presumption whereby a seller should make some warranties, not unless in cases where the seller and the buyer agree otherwise (Devenney, & Kenny, 2011). A seller who does the business of often selling a certain product has greater responsibilities in relating with any average consumer. By using the term "as is" the seller did limit his liability against the buyer. As of the doctrine of caveat emptor, the buyer of the car was not in a position to claim damages he incurred when he got injured from the brake failure from the seller.

Question 2 Puffery refers to claims and promotional statements that instead of expressing objective views, they express subjective views and no "reasonable person" can take these views literally. Puffery mostly appears in testimonials, and it puffs up the image of the thing under description. Puffery is utilized in product promotion with an aim of making the product extra appealing by using bombastic, subjective, and hard to prove claims. Several people have claimed that some organizations easily cross the boundary differentiating puffery from other misleading claims.

In many countries, there are laws that permit organizations to involve puffery; this differentiates mere puffery from real factual claims that would result in misleading a consumer (Cseres, 2005). What mainly distinguishes a puffery is the fact that it is not considered seriously by consumers. When doing product evaluations in order to whether to purchase or not to buy a product, consumers are always aware that the claim is never literal. The Federal Trade Commission monitors misleading and deceptive advertising, although puffery is not considered to be against the law.

The FTC claims that consumers should be aware of these statements, and they should not take the exaggeration seriously (Winn, 2006). For instance, if a soda industry advertises a “healthy” product, lawyers can enquire if customers should interpret that to say the soda is healthier compared to other related products or to mean the soda is good for their health. If such a claim happens to be puffery, customers interpret it to mean the soda is healthier compared to its competitors, but if it happens to be a misleading claim, customers may interpret that the soda has health benefits.

FTC can step in to take a suitable action whenever there is no adequate proof to back up a puffery (Devenney, & Kenny, 2011). Question 3 Identity theft results when individuals better known as fraudsters get access to sufficient details about another person’s identity to carry out identity fraud and other crimes. Personal information may include the victim’s date of birth, their identifying number, their name, their credit card number, and their previous or current addresses. Identity theft can happen regardless of the fraud victim being