PHAI Online - The Public Health Advocacy Institute
State Consumer Protection Law
PHAI conducted a fifty-state review of state consumer protection laws to determine how they can be used to address unfair and deceptive food and beverage marketing practices directed toward children or those who purchase food and beverages for children. These state laws permit private citizens, and state attorneys general or prosecutors to take action to limit the marketing of unhealthy foods to children. We identified the leading or most likely to be invoked consumer protection statute for each state and the District of Columbia and summarized key provisions relevant to future claims alleging unfair, deceptive or unconscionable food marketing to children. The focus of the profiles is on relevant statutory language as opposed to case law interpreting substantive provisions.
- Major Findings from 50-State Survey of State Consumer Protection Law to Limit Junk Food Marketing to Children by Cara Wilking and Mark Gottlieb summarizes and contextualizes our research (pdf).
- Reining in Pester Power Food and Beverage Marketing by Cara Wilking applies our research to food marketers who appeal to kids’ ability to nag adults to purchase unhealthy foods (pdf).
INDIVIDUAL STATE CONSUMER PROTECTION PROFILES
Click to visit our interactive consumer protection map
Each state’s consumer protection profile opens as a pdf document:
This research was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research Program (#66968).
