Translation of "Service d'aide au consommateur " (English → French) :

EUROPA - EU law and publications - EUR-Lex - EUR-Lex - 62009CA0236 - EN - Case C-236/09: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 1 March 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Cour constitutionnelle (Belgium)) — Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL, Yann van Vugt, Charles Basselier v Conseil des ministres (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Fundamental rights — Combating discrimination — Equal treatment for men and women — Access to and supply of goods and services — Insurance premiums and benefits — Actu ...[+++]arial factors — Sex as a factor in the assessment of insurance risks — Private life assurance contracts — Directive 2004/113/EC — Article 5(2) — Derogation not subject to any temporal limitation — Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Articles 21 and 23 — Invalidity) // Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 1 March 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Cour constitutionnelle (Belgium)) — Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL, Yann van Vugt, Charles Basselier v Conseil des ministres // (Case C-236/09) - ( // (Reference for a preliminary ruling - Fundamental rights - Combating discrimination - Equal treatment for men and women - Access to and supply of goods and services - Insurance premiums and benefits - Actuarial factors - Sex as a factor in the assessment of insurance risks - Private life assurance contracts - Directive 2004/113/EC - Article 5(2) - Derogation not subject to any temporal limitation - Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union - Articles 21 and 23 - Invalidity)

The Service d'aide au consommateur is supporting his action. The SAC—or Consumer Aid Services—is well known throughout Quebec and across Canada, in part thanks to its founder, Senator Madeleine Plamondon.

This is why many non-governmental consumer watchdogs, from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre to Service d'aide au consommateur, and many others as well have addressed this very important issue.

(18) Information society services span a wide range of economic activities which take place on-line; these activities can, in particular, consist of selling goods on-line; activities such as the delivery of goods as such or the provision of services off-line are not covered; information society services are not solely restricted to services giving rise to on-line contracting but also, in so far as they represent an economic activity, extend to services which are not remunerated by those who receive them, such as those offering on-line information or commercial communications, or those providing tools allowing for search, access and re ...[+++]trieval of data; information society services also include services consisting of the transmission of information via a communication network, in providing access to a communication network or in hosting information provided by a recipient of the service; television broadcasting within the meaning of Directive EEC/89/552 and radio broadcasting are not information society services because they are not provided at individual request; by contrast, services which are transmitted point to point, such as video-on-demand or the provision of commercial communications by electronic mail are information society services; the use of electronic mail or equivalent individual communications for instance by natural persons acting outside their trade, business or profession including their use for the conclusion of contracts between such persons is not an information society service; the contractual relationship between an employee and his employer is not an information society service; activities which by their very nature cannot be carried out at a distance and by electronic means, such as the statutory auditing of company accounts or medical advice requiring the physical examination of a patient are not information society services.

Organizations such as the Association coopérative d'économie familiale and the Service d'aide au consommateur in Shawinigan deal with hundreds of people who are heavily in debt.

In March, the Service d'aide au consommateur in Shawinigan released a study entitled: ``Credit cards-Problems for consumers, profits for credit-card companies'' which stated, and I quote: ``Credit-card companies, being mostly concerned about their profits, have often overlooked the serious effects that credit cards could have on the consumer's life''.