The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed (pdf) all telecom service providers to ensure that all pay-per-use value added services (VAS) pre-loaded on SIM cards are activated only after obtaining explicit consumer consent. Telcos have till January 13, 2015 to comply with this directive. Consumer complaints regarding activation of VAS without consent received by TRAI revealed that in most cases these VAS products were related to the ones pre-loaded on SIM cards, which the consumer might have accidentally or unknowingly clicked and got charged for. The consumer wasn’t provided the opportunity to agree or decline to proceed. Telecom service providers have apparently told TRAI that their understanding was that TRAI’s earlier directives were for subscription-based VAS products only, and since most of the VAS products pre-loaded on SIMs are charged on a pay-per-use basis the two-step consumer consent process wasn’t followed. TRAI mandated procedure for obtaining consumer consent - Consumer explores pre-loaded VAS products on SIM and selects one - Telecom service provider has to inform consumer through SMS about the VAS requested, its validity, charges and ask the consumer to confirm the request through SMS within 60 minutes. - In case the consumer doesn't reply or if it's after 60 minutes the request must be cancelled. - In case the consumer confirms request the VAS product is activated and the consumer consent log needs to be stored in the system of the telecom operator in un-editable format. - Consumer is informed immediately through SMS about the activation,…
