Rules and regulations are essential in the marketplace for the protection of consumers. Individual consumers often find themselves in a weak position when they face problems with goods or services they have purchased. Sellers frequently try to shift all responsibility onto the buyer, acting as if they have no obligation once a sale is completed. Their usual attitude is that if the consumer did not like the product, they should go elsewhere.

Exploitation in the marketplace occurs in various ways, making regulations necessary. For instance, traders sometimes engage in unfair trade practices such as weighing less than what they should, adding charges that were not mentioned earlier, or selling adulterated and defective goods to unsuspecting buyers.

Additionally, rules are needed because companies often make false claims about their products. For example, a baby food company claimed its product was better than mother's milk, and cigarette-manufacturing companies had to be forced through long court battles to accept that their products could cause cancer.

Rules and regulations are also required to protect workers in the unorganised sector who are forced to work at low wages under unfair and harmful conditions. Similarly, they protect people from high interest rates charged by moneylenders in the informal sector, who use tricks to bind borrowers and force them to sell produce at low rates or even sell their land to repay loans.

Thus, rules ensure that consumers are not exploited and that sellers remain accountable for their products and services.