consumer

An individual who purchases and uses products and services in contradistinction to manufacturers who produce the goods or services and wholesalers or retailers who distribute and sell them. A member of the general category of persons who are protected by state and federal laws regulating price policies, financing practices, quality of goods and services, credit reporting, debt collection, and other trade practices of U.S. commerce. A purchaser of a product or service who has a legal right to enforce any implied or express warranties pertaining to the item against the manufacturer who has introduced the goods or services into the marketplace or the seller who has made them a term of the sale.

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consumer noun buyer, buyer of labor, client, coemptor, customer, emptor, leaser, lessee, obtainer, patron, procurer, purchaser, purchaser of goods, shopper, transferee, vendee
Associated concepts: consumer action, consumer credit, consumer fraud, consumers sales tax, ultimate consumer

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See also: client, customer, patron