THE Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC) says there are \u201ca lot of red flags\u201d surrounding Vodafone Fiji\u2019s M-PAiSA auto-renew feature as it investigates complaints of money being deducted from customers\u2019 e-wallets without clear notice.<\/p>\n
FCCC said that while there is no specific law governing auto-renewals, it is examining provisions relating to \u201cunconscionable conduct\u201d under the FCCC Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have to be some standards,\u201d FCCC chief executive officer Senikavika Jiuta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have to be disclosures. It has to be a reasonable time for the consumers to make that choice. And I see there are a lot of red flags with this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commission said it is reviewing the matter and has advised customers who believe they were charged without their permission to lodge a formal complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor any consumer, the fact that your money is being deducted without your knowledge, it\u2019s a breach of your privacy. You are not informed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that you are touching other people\u2019s e-wallets without the consent, to us that\u2019s a concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Jiuta also raised concerns about transparency, saying \u201cin the transaction history it\u2019s not there as well\u201d.<\/p>\n
The complaints have reignited debate over automatic billing and consumer rights in Fiji, with numerous complaints continuing to surface on social media.<\/p>\n
Henry Vesikula, 28, an M-PAiSA user from Nadi claimed he only got the text after the deduction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we wanted to unsubscribe from the plan, we had to dial *181#, Option 3, Option 5, or go via the M-PAiSA App,\u201d Mr Vesikula said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut banks don\u2019t do that, and I don\u2019t know why Vodafone is doing that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have failed to consult customers with no explanation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like them telling us indirectly, \u2018If you want to unsubscribe, you can do it yourself, but if you don\u2019t, we\u2019ll do it on your behalf.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Vodafone Fiji defended the feature, saying it was introduced on June 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feature applies only to eligible self-subscribed plans and requires customer consent, including PIN authentication, at the time of purchase,\u201d a Vodafone spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Vodafone said customers were notified of the renewal terms, they receive confirmation and reminder SMS messages, and they may disable the feature at any time by dialing *181#, Option 3, Option 5, or via the M-PAiSA App.<\/p>\n
The company urged customers experiencing issues to call 123 or 124, visit a retail outlet, or contact its official social media team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC) says there are \u201ca lot of red flags\u201d surrounding Vodafone Fiji\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-720958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}