GOOGLE TO FIX UNFAIR “YOUTUBE PREMIUM SERVICE”

[Anchor Lead]

The Korea Communications Commission has ordered Google to provide refunds to the users of the YouTube Premium service who want to terminate it early. Google has agreed to correct its unfair subscription practices.

[Pkg]

Users of Google's YouTube Premium service can watch videos uninterrupted by ads for a fixed monthly fee. The video sharing giant attracted customers by providing free-trial marketing events. But subscribers later discovered they could only terminate the service after a full month. And there were no refunds. Back in January the Korea Communications Commission ordered Google to correct its unfair subscription practices that violate Korean telecom laws. The KCC emphasized, users must be able to terminate the service whenever they want and receive refunds for the remaining subscription period. After extending the deadline for taking corrective measures by two months, Google finally admitted to having violated the law and agreed to enforce corrective measures from August. It also pledged to post notices about VAT charges on the service subscription screen. The tech giant also agreed to give a 3-day notice to users via email when their free trial period ends and paid services begin. Google ran notices about the corrective measures on the initial screen of YouTube for four days from June 22.

[Soundbite] CHEON JI-HYUN(KOREA COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION) : "Google's corrective measures mandate it to provide explanation to users and guarantee their right to terminate services. The measure is very meaningful as it applies local laws to protect Korean users not only from domestic service providers but also from global ones."

Korea will be the first among 30 countries where Google will charge subscribers based on the number of days they used the YouTube Premium service. Back in April, Google paid a fine of around 720 thousand U.S. dollars levied by the Korea Communications Commission. The KCC vowed to take stern measures against global corporations for such violations.