The North Carolina Democratic Party urges government agencies to continue their efforts to protect consumers and to promote confidence in a fair marketplace that is free from price fixing, price gouging, unfair restraints of trade, deception, fraud, and other abuses of the free enterprise system.

COUNTERFEIT TRADE GOODS: We stand for firm enforcement of the laws against illegal counterfeit trademarked goods. Those goods often create health and safety issues for the consuming public. These counterfeit trademarked products also deprive North Carolina manufacturers of jobs, create unfair competition for honest merchants, prevent the collection of government tax revenue and often constitute the source of revenue for terrorists and organized crime.

DO NOT CALL REGISTRY: We support continuing all efforts to protect our citizens from unwanted telephone solicitations and scam artists.

IDENTITY THEFT/COMPUTER VIRUSES: We support North Carolina's leadership role in fighting identity theft. We consider computer viruses as assaults on our property and our privacy, and believe such actions must be prosecuted fully.

INSURANCE RATES: We oppose discrimination in either rates or access for all forms of insurance. We stand for the guarantees that affordable insurance will be widely available, while respecting claimants' rights to fair compensation for injury and loss.

LENDING: We encourage banks, savings and loans, and other financial service institutions to maintain high quality service at a reasonable cost for all consumers. We oppose predatory lending practices.

PRE-EMPTION: We support State efforts to fight against any federal pre-emption laws enacted to protect North Carolina consumers.

PRICE FIXING/GOUGING: We oppose price fixing or price gouging, actions that often occur in times of emergency. Given the skyrocketing price of fuel, we shall work to protect consumers and businesses alike.

SECURITIES REGULATION: We believe North Carolinians should be able to have confidence in the safety of their securities investments. The investing public should be protected from securities fraud. We Democrats believe in fair business practices with appropriate and honest public disclosure for stockholders.

UTILITY RATES: We support essential utilities being available at reasonable rates.

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