The TRAI has asked Vodafone Essar Mobile Services Limited to reimburse to all customers, within fifteen days, charges imposed for value added services in all cases when the services were provided without consent.

The Authority had received complaints from the subscribers of Vodafone Essar Mobile Services Ltd. that they have been provided with value added services without consent.

 TRAI had been in a constant association with the service provider for a long time and Vodafone finally admitted of technical error. Keeping this explanation as a base, it can not be concluded that value added service was given with the consent of the consumers, especially when the consumers denied having given consent.

 “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,” says TRAI.