Vulnerable Consumer Protection Business Ethics Research

A vulnerable consumer is someone with low income, who comes from a non-English speaking background, has some kind of disability, suffers from a chronic illness, has little or no literacy, is homeless, very young, or very old (FTC, n.d.). Considering ethics, there should be greater government regulation with respect to selling to vulnerable consumers because corporations are unlikely to police themselves or hold themselves accountable to any kind of ethical standard. Pursuit of profits is the natural code that companies follow. That is why, for instance, pharmaceutical companies will target the old with drug ads during shows watched by the elderly: they want to target this vulnerable population and get them to inquire about the drugs they saw on TV. Or toy companies will target the young during kids’ shows and get them to pester their parents for TVs. No company is going to not do this—and so some form of regulation is needed to protect the vulnerable consumer.

From the Christian worldview, businesses should consider the methods of marketing to vulnerable consumers as inappropriate and should avoid it altogether since these consumers are not in a position to be able to make good decisions all the time: they may be in pain, or ignorant, or susceptible to external influence—and it is not right to take advantage of them or to exploit them for profit. As Scripture says, “And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep” (2 Peter 2:3). In other words, God will destroy those who lure others into traps or who exploit them with false words that they do not fully understand. Marketing to deceive the vulnerable is not what a company should be doing with its resources.