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1. What up-to-date resources compare the profusion of consumer protection legislations in the USA?

2. How can tourists pick the American jurisdictions with the most consumer-friendly laws?

Many travelers do not know, or are stunned to find out when something goes awry, the fact that "[i]n the United States, contracts are governed by state law: with rare exceptions (such as certain contracts to which the federal government is a party), there is no such thing as U.S. contract law. [emphasis mine] However, the laws of the 50 U.S. states — as well as those of the handful of U.S. territories — are generally consistent in applying a "freedom of contract" approach to commercial agreements between sophisticated (or presumed to be sophisticated) parties. Accordingly, choice of law and choice of forum provisions in commercial agreements are generally enforced in accordance with the contract language."

Even lawyers probably cannot know about, keep abreast of, or compare, the consumer laws for each US jurisdiction that change constantly — California's Consumers Legal Remedies Act vs. New York's General Business Law vs. Washington state's "Consumer Protection Act (RCW 19.86)" vs. Consumer Protection Procedures Act DC Official Code §§ 28-3901 to 28-3913.

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    What do you mean by "most consumer-friendly laws"? Consumers could be interested in many different aspects of laws. There are laws specific to certain classes of products, e.g. cars, alcoholic beverages, marijuana, food. Some might care about privacy or security, others not. Some might be buying online, others in shops. Some might care about laws on debt, credit, etc, others may pay cash.
    – Stuart F
    Nov 11, 2022 at 14:07
  • Due to the time and expense of bring a lawsuit, consumer protection laws are nearly irrelevant to the individual consumer, except for something like buying a car. (You could bring a small claims action, but those are far more subjective by the judge, and then you're still talking about hundreds of dollars, minimum) The vast majority of successful consumer protection actions are multi-state class action suits, often brought by state attorney generals.
    – user71659
    Nov 11, 2022 at 20:42

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You would start by reading this evaluation, and the associated appendices. This provides you with three-way evaluation of various legal facts which the authors deem to indicate "consumer-friendliness". In some states coverage of insurance is strong and in some it is weak; in some states the area of "consumer suit without proof of impact" is a strong protection and in some it is weak. You can then determine for yourself which criterion is most important to you. Bear in mind that this is limited to the scope of Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices laws, which is only a subset of contractual relations. For the Uniform Commercial Code, you would look at a resource like this, and for consumer data privacy, this one. You will really need to specify the kinds of law you are looking for, more specific than "consumer protection".

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  1. What up-to-date resources compare the profusion of consumer protection legislations in the USA?

Each state publishes their laws. Google search is usually the first stop.

  1. How can tourists pick the American jurisdictions with the most consumer-friendly laws?

Tourists don’t usually pick their destination based on local consumer protection law; they base it on what they want to experience.

If they want to see the Statue of Liberty their plans have to include New York although long distance views are available from New Jersey. Yosemite necessarily involves California, New Orleans - Louisiana, Memphis - Tennessee etc.

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    and of Course: seeing the most prominent example of Canadian supremacy by arson requires going to Washington DC.
    – Trish
    Nov 11, 2022 at 10:18
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    Yes, it's not really something where people will sit down and grade all the consumer laws. If you are interested in something specific, e.g. "can I buy alcohol/marijuana there?" or "I'm planning to buy a car/gun/house there", then you can Google that, but there is no general answer that can be given here.
    – Stuart F
    Nov 11, 2022 at 14:10