CONSUMERISM

movement or policies aimed at regulating the products, services, methods, and standards of manufacturers, sellers, and advertisers in the interests of the buyer. Such regulation may be institutional, statutory, or embodied in a voluntary code accepted by a particular industry, or it may result more indirectly from the influence of consumer organizations. Consumer protection organizations in one form or another are scattered throughout the world, from the industrial nations to the Third World countries. Governments often establish formal regulatory agencies to insure consumer protection. For example, in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), established in 1914, is authorized to prevent deceptive practices in commerce and to regulate the package labelling of consumer products: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), established as the Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration in the Agriculture Department in 1927, administers consumer protection of foods, cosmetics, and other substances; and the National Highway Traffic Administration, established in 1970, is concerned with all aspects of automobile safety. At least one government division or office dealing with consumer affairs has been set up in each of the 50 states. The foremost individual consumer advocate has been Ralph Nader, who criticized the safety engineering of U.S. automobiles in the book Unsafe at Any Speed (1965). The International Organization of Consumers Unions (IOCU) registers a worldwide membership, with some membersespecially in Asiaoperating only in a single city, whereas other members, such as the Consumers' Association of Canada, maintain nationwide networks of organizations. The law has long provided certain safeguards to buyers. Among these safeguards (exemplified in England's Sale of Goods Act of 1893) is the one that states that whenever a buyer, expressly or by implication, makes known to the seller the particular purpose for which the goods are required, thus relying on the seller's skill or judgment, there is an implied condition that the goods sold shall be reasonably fit for such a purpose. Other early legislation dealt mainly with adulteration of food and drugs. This was true, for example, of the Adulteration of Food and Drugs Act of 1872 (England) and similar, cumulative measures of 1848, 1890, and 1906 in the United States. The scope of such acts has been enlarged from time to time to include, for example, goods such as electrical products and automobiles, which could endanger the safety of the consumer if certain standards are not met. The provisions of such legislation are necessarily complex and vary from country to country, as well as, in the United States, from state to state. Various nonstatutory controls, such as standards laid down by national-standards institutions, also interact with statutory controls. In the following survey both the statutory and non-statutory aspects of this subject are considered together.