Trai asks Vodafone-Essar to refund VAS charges

TELECOM TANGLE

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed Vodafone Essar Mobile Services to refund value-added service (VAS) charges that were levied without "explicit consent".

However, the regulator did not specify the amount the GSM major has to refund to the consumers.

Trai has directed the company to make the refund within 15 days to customers who have denied or disputed to have given their consent for activation of VAS. This is also applicable for continuation of services that were initially offered free-of-charge, Trai said in a release.

The regulator had received complaints from Vodafone-Essar subscribers, stating that the company had provisioned VAS without consent.

Trai had been in correspondence with the service provider in these matters for "quite a long time and the service provider admitted of technical error", it said.

Based on the explanation furnished by the service provider, it cannot be concluded that the VAS was provided with the explicit consent of the consumers, particularly when the consumers have denied having given any consent.

"Vodafone had recently received customer queries via Trai regarding VAS, wherein Trai had enquired whether explicit concern was obtained from customers for activating these services. For all these cases, due proof/explanations have been provided. The VAS were activated by Vodafone only after receiving explicit instructions from customers over voice, SMS or interactive voice response (IVR). Records of which were maintained as per requirement," a Vodafone Essar spokesperson said.