Business English Conversation Lessons:

Consumer Protection
In this conversation lesson, students learn vocabulary about consumer protection
laws and discuss the topic in small groups. Teach the vocabulary and then have
students do the conversation questions in groups.

Vocabulary
Recommended terms to teach:

consumer protection laws

legislation
regulatory agencies

product safety
safety standards, inspections, audits, product testing, product certification, labeling
laws, product  warnings, hazardous products, recall, banned products

anti-trust laws/competition law (British)

monopolies, monopolization, cartel, price gouging, price fixing

laws against misrepresentation

whistle-blower laws
privacy laws

banking laws
debt collection laws, lending laws

Conversation Questions
1. What regulatory agencies are there in your country? What are their objectives?

 2. What types of products are banned in your country? Why are they banned? Are
any unusual products banned? Why?  Which product bans do you agree with? Which
product bans do you disagree with? Tell your group about it.

 3. Think of the company you currently work for. What type of consumer protection
laws does your company have to be aware of? How do these laws affect your
company? Explain to your group.
 4. Does your country have anti-trust laws? Can you think of any well-known
examples of companies violating anti-trust laws? In general, how do you feel about
anti-trust laws? Do you think they are in the people’s best interest? Discuss with your
group.

 5. What type of products do you know that have product warnings? What do they
product warnings say? Do you think these product warnings are necessary? What
type of products do you think should have warnings? Do you think some product
warnings are unnecessary? Which ones? Discuss with your group.

 6. Does your country have whistle-blower laws? 

 7. Can you think of any companies that had to issue a recall for a product? What
happened? What are some things a company should do if they have to recall a
product? What are some things that companies should avoid doing if they have to
recall a product?

 8. Does your country have any lending laws in place (such as maximum levels of
interest on credit cards and loans)? Tell your group about them.