Methodology of Business Studies

4

Consumer Protection and Intellectual Property Rights

4.1 THE RIGHTS OF A CONSUMER

The term consumerism is related to the consumer movement launched in the mid-1960s by the concerns triggered by Rachel Carson and Ralph Nader's auto-safety investigation and by the then U.S. president John F. Kennedy's efforts to establish consumer's rights. Consumerism is defined as a social force designed to protect consumer interest in the marketplace by organizing consumer pressures on business. According to Kotler and Armstrong, consumerism is an organized movement of citizens and government agencies to improve the rights and power of buyers in relation to sellers. The consumer is the supreme power (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008): “The purpose of any business ...