ABSTRACT
Advances in information technology now provide consumers around the world with access to new products and services. This chapter considers what, if any, special protections consumers should be entitled to expect with regard to new products and markets in light of past and present understandings of the notion of consumer protection. Modern legal systems confer on some individuals the status of 'consumer' when they engage in market transactions, a status which entitles them to special protections not enjoyed by other market actors. In the information economy, some of the major players in the traditional retail markets, such as the mass media, broadcast television networks, travel agents, telephone companies, banks, brokerage firms and even department stores are being disintermediated by newer businesses that were 'born digital'. Although US consumers face creeping deregulation of consumer markets as existing consumer protection laws become anachronistic and are not replaced with new laws addressing new market conditions, they enjoy some of the competitive retail markets.
