The Montana Green Party believes that consumers have a right to be informed in the marketplace and protected from unfair and deceptive trade practices. Full documentation of health and safety records of companies and their products must be open to the public. Consumers deserve to know the reliability and endurance of the non-perishable products they buy; "mean time between failures ratings" should be mandatory. We favor legislation mandating full-disclosure labeling of food, medicines, cosmetics, and other potentially dangerous or contaminated products. The Montana Green Party supports national "country of origin" labeling. Consumer protection regulations must have real power, real enforcement, and real penalties if they are going to work to protect the citizens of our state.
The Montana Green Party opposes tort reforms that leave citizens powerless to hold corporations responsible for their products and actions. We also believe that the legal system is greatly overused for frivolous and costly lawsuits which have no basis in reality. The power of the state must be strictly limited to prevent the usurpation of the legal system and other public institutions for anti-social, private purposes.