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Trai asks Vodafone to refund charges for VAS without consent

Indiantelevision.com Team

(13 March 2008 3:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed Vodafone Essar Mobile Services Ltd. to refund to all consumers, within 15 days, the charges levied for value added services in all cases where the services were provided without explicit consent of customers.

The Authority had received complaints from Vodafone subscribers that they had been provided with value added services without consent.

The sector regulator had been in correspondence with the service provider in these matters for quite a long time and Vodafone finally admitted the technical error.

Trai has concluded after rounds of clarification that Vodafone has failed to prove that the value added services had been given with prior explicit consent of the subscribers, especially since there are available written complaints against the company.

Trai says: "In the above circumstances, to protect the interests of consumers, the Authority directed M/s Vodafone Essar Mobile Services Ltd. to refund to all consumers, within fifteen days, the charges levied by the M/s Vodafone for value added services, in all cases where the value added services were provided without explicit consent, including all cases where subscribers denied or disputed having given their consent for activation of such value added services or for continuation of such services which were initially offered free of charge."