Independent profile — not affiliated with YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is the online video platform whose Terms of Service name Google LLC as the U.S. service provider. This page lists YouTube's own published routes for cancelling Premium, requesting refunds, appealing strikes and account terminations, the 2019 FTC and New York COPPA order, a 2026 final-approved children's-privacy class settlement, and 18 archive complaints (2007 to 2013) about the service, with BBB and Trustpilot figures as displayed on October 15, 2026.
Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints
USAComplaints currently maintains 18 historical complaints about YouTube, published between 2007 and 2013. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.
- Unrecognized $12.90 Charge Processed on 02/12
- Unrecognized $8.52 Charge After Account Fraud Alert
- No Way to Send Feedback About Shortened Titles and Descriptions
- Stalker Videos Left Up While My Account Was Deleted
- Negative Video About My Company Cannot Be Removed
- No Way to Email Support About a Concern
- Latest Videos Not Showing in Searches, Blamed on Moderators
- Insistence on Keeping Hate Speech Videos Online
- Login Loop and Suspiciously Low View Counts
- Account Permanently Disabled Without Warning or Explanation
- Likes Videos but Wants Inappropriate Content Blocked
- Video of Parents in Bedroom Remains Online After Reports
- Underage Daughter Taped and Posted Online by Another Minor
- Looped Clip-Show Videos With Few Images Should Be Removed
- Violent and Terrorist Videos Hosted With Chat Threats to Teens
- Son Accessed Adult Content With Easy Age Check
- Parental Controls Wanted for Kids Using Video Site
- Site Hacked and Password Changed Four Times
Complaint Themes
Independent Sources
Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.
Contacts & Payment
- Official website: https://www.youtube.com/
- YouTube Help: contact support: https://support.google.com/youtube/gethelp
- Manage or cancel Premium membership: https://www.youtube.com/paid_memberships
- Request a Premium refund: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/12014038
- Appeal a strike or removal: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/185111
- Account suspension appeal form: https://support.google.com/accounts/contact/suspended?p=youtube
- BBB-listed phone: (650) 253-0001
Locations
| Type | Address |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | 901 Cherry Ave San Bruno CA 94066 |
YouTube: how to cancel, get a refund and appeal (checked October 15, 2026)
People search for YouTube complaints for different reasons: a Premium charge, a removed video or strike, a suspended account, or a problem reaching anyone at the company. These are the routes YouTube's own help pages describe.
- Cancel YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium. The help article gives these steps: go to youtube.com/paid_memberships, click Manage membership, click Deactivate, click Continue to cancel, select a reason, then click Yes, cancel. It says that when you cancel you "won't be charged again unless you re-subscribe" and that benefits "will continue until the end of the billing period". It also says you can cancel, pause or resume the membership at any time, and that with Google Play billing you cannot pause but can cancel and sign up again. It lists three cases to check when cancelling fails: billed by Apple (cancel in your Apple account), billed by Google Play (cancel in Google Play settings), or already cancelled.
- Request a Premium refund. The refund article says that after a cancellation "You won't be refunded for the period between when you cancel and when your membership ends", that "Refunds are not available for partially used prepaid plans", and that purchases made through the Apple store "are subject to Apple's refund policies". It also says that if videos or features related to a purchase don't work, "you may be eligible for a refund", and it points to YouTube support for a request. It adds that to cancel immediately and get a refund you should get in touch with the YouTube support team. The "partially used prepaid plans" wording appears in the U.S.-served copy of the article read on October 15, 2026; a copy served to a non-U.S. location did not show that bullet.
- Strike or video removal. The appeal article says warnings and strikes can be appealed for 6 months, and content removals for up to 1 year. For a removal, sign in to YouTube Studio, open Content, go to the video, use the Notice link and submit a reason; for a strike, use the Channel violations card and select Appeal. It adds that deleting the video does not resolve the strike, that "You may appeal each strike only once", and that "There's no additional penalty for appeals that are rejected."
- Suspended or terminated account. The Terms say YouTube will notify you with the reason "unless we reasonably believe" that doing so would violate law, compromise an investigation, compromise the integrity or security of the Service, or cause harm, and that if you believe a termination was made in error you can appeal using the form the Terms link to.
- Contact. YouTube Help has a "Get help from YouTube Support" flow at support.google.com/youtube/gethelp. Complaints in our own archive that say there is no email address or customer service date from 2011 and 2012; the current help flow is the route the company publishes today.
If a charge appears on a card as "GOOGLE*YOUTUBE" and you do not recognize it, check your Google payments page and the billing topics in YouTube Help first; the refund article names Google Play and Apple support for purchases billed through them.
FTC and New York Attorney General order (children's privacy, 2019)
On September 4, 2019 the FTC announced that Google and YouTube would pay $170 million to settle allegations that YouTube violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. The FTC says $136 million went to the FTC and $34 million to the New York Attorney General. According to the FTC and New York, YouTube used persistent identifiers to track viewers of child-directed channels and serve targeted ads without notifying parents or obtaining their consent.
The FTC release lists the order's requirements, including that YouTube "develop, implement, and maintain a system that permits channel owners to identify their child-directed content", notify channel owners that their content may fall under COPPA, and provide annual COPPA training for employees who work with channel owners. The release states that the Commission voted 3-2 to authorize the complaint and the stipulated order. The D.D.C. docket shows the court entered the Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction and Civil Penalty Judgment on September 10, 2019. See the case table below.
Press report, not an agency action. MediaPost (August 28, 2026), citing a Bloomberg report based on unnamed people familiar with the matter, wrote that the FTC "reportedly is considering suing" YouTube over content-moderation decisions, and that it is "not clear" whether the agency will file suit. We cite this only as a press report; it is not an FTC announcement or a filed complaint.
YouTube: who operates it
YouTube's Terms of Service for U.S. users ("Effective as of December 15, 2023", opened October 15, 2026) state: "The entity providing the Service is Google LLC, a company operating under the laws of Delaware, located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043", and that its "Affiliates" are the other companies in the Alphabet Inc. group. The Terms say disputes are governed by California law and litigated in the federal or state courts of Santa Clara County, California.
The names "YouTube, LLC" and "YouTube LLC" appear as defendants together with Google LLC in the court filings listed on this page. The FTC's September 4, 2019 release refers to "Google LLC and its subsidiary YouTube, LLC", and the notice of settlement in Trump v. YouTube (ECF No. 178) states that Alphabet is the parent of which "Defendant YouTube is an indirect subsidiary". BBB lists a separate business-profile entry named Youtube at 901 Cherry Avenue, San Bruno, CA, as displayed on October 15, 2026; BBB's own data field gives a business start date of September 4, 1998 for that entry. This profile covers the YouTube service; Google's own profile on this site covers Google's other products.
Complaints and reviews about YouTube
Counts below are snapshots as displayed on October 15, 2026, from different sources, and are not added together.
- BBB: the BBB profile for Youtube, San Bruno, CA shows rating A+, "NOT a BBB Accredited Business", and "9,991 total complaints in the last 3 years" with "3,389 complaints filed in the last 12 months". BBB states it does not verify information provided by third parties.
- Trustpilot: the youtube.com page shows 11,587 reviews and a TrustScore of 1.5 out of 5, with the labels "Claimed profile • Jun 2022" and "Hasn’t replied to negative reviews". These are individual opinions and Trustpilot does not verify the specific claims.
- This site: 18 archive posts are linked to this page as being about YouTube itself, dated 2007 to 2013. They describe content they consider inappropriate or hateful, account suspensions or deletions, difficulty reaching the company, and two unrecognized GOOGLE*YOUTUBE card charges. They are consumer allegations that we have not verified. Other 2008 to 2013 posts name YouTube only as the place where a third party advertised, and are not linked here.
Court cases involving YouTube
The cases below come from court dockets read on October 15, 2026. Allegations in complaints are claims by the plaintiffs. The Hubbard final-approval order and the Trump notice of settlement each state that they are not an admission of liability or wrongdoing; the YouTube TV notice says the same. Cases still pending are described as allegations only.
Cases not yet decided. Flemming v. Google LLC (N.D. Cal., filed July 14, 2026) is a proposed class action over YouTube Premium; Dutcher v. Google LLC (Santa Clara Superior Court) is a proposed $7.5 million settlement of YouTube TV auto-renewal claims awaiting a final-approval hearing set for October 15, 2026. Details are in the case table.
Is YouTube Legitimate?
YouTube is an operating video platform. Its Terms name Google LLC, Mountain View, California, as the entity providing the service; Google's own profile on this site covers that company. Government and court records on this page show a 2019 FTC and New York Attorney General COPPA order against Google and YouTube, a 2026 final judgment approving a class settlement of children's-privacy claims, and a 2025 notice of settlement ending a suit over account suspensions in which the notice states it is not an admission of liability. BBB and Trustpilot ratings are shown above with their dates and are not combined into a verdict.
Court & Public Records
| Case | Authority | Dates | Type | Outcome | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Trade Commission and State of New York v. Google LLC and YouTube, LLC (children's privacy, COPPA) Docket 1:19-cv-02642 | U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia | Judgment | Judgment entered The FTC complaint and an unopposed motion to enter a stipulated order were filed on September 4, 2019. The docket shows that on September 10, 2019 the court entered the parties' "Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction and Civil Penalty Judgment", and a minute order of November 4, 2019 closed the case. The FTC's release describes a $170 million payment ($136 million to the FTC and $34 million to the New York Attorney General) and the order's injunctive terms. | Source | |
| Hubbard (C.H.) v. Google LLC, YouTube LLC and others (children's privacy class action; channel-owner defendants also appear) Docket 5:19-cv-07016 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California | Settled | Settled The court's final-approval order of January 13, 2026 describes a $30 million cash settlement with Google and YouTube for a class of persons in the United States under 13 who watched content allegedly directed to children on YouTube between July 1, 2013 and April 1, 2020. It records 4,062,057 claims received as of December 15, 2025 and states that the settlement agreement and order are not admissions of any wrongdoing, fault or liability by Google. Final judgment was entered the same day. A notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit was filed by a group of plaintiffs on February 10, 2026; on February 25, 2026 the court granted their unopposed motion to dismiss that appeal without prejudice and terminated the case. The docket also shows appearances for other defendants, including Cartoon Network, DreamWorks Animation, Hasbro, Mattel and Pocketwatch; the order described here covers the settlement with Google and YouTube. | Source | |
| Trump et al. v. YouTube, LLC and Sundar Pichai (account suspension, First Amendment claims) Docket 4:21-cv-08009 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California | Settled | Settled The plaintiffs challenged YouTube's suspension of accounts. The docket shows a stay pending the disposition of a related Twitter appeal (August 3, 2022), administrative closure on December 12, 2023, and on September 29, 2025 a "Notice of Settlement and Stipulation of Dismissal" (ECF No. 178) filed by plaintiffs and by YouTube, LLC and Sundar Pichai. The notice states that the parties "agree to settle and dismiss the Action, with prejudice", that Alphabet, "of which Defendant YouTube is an indirect subsidiary", would transfer a total of $24,500,000, of which $22,000,000 resolves Donald J. Trump's claims (which he directed to be contributed to the Trust for the National Mall) and $2,500,000 in total resolves the claims of the other plaintiffs, and that it "shall not constitute an admission of liability or fault on the part of the Defendants". The filing date shown is the date on the N.D. Cal. docket. | Source | |
| Flemming and Rose v. Google LLC and YouTube, LLC (YouTube Premium advertising class action) Docket 3:26-cv-07182 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California | Filed | Filed — no final outcome recorded The docket shows a class action complaint for damages filed on July 14, 2026 by William Flemming and Devin Rose against Google LLC and YouTube, LLC, with service on both defendants on July 22, 2026. ClassAction.org's summary says the complaint alleges that YouTube Premium is not as ad-free as advertised because ads and sponsor segments appear in streamed content. These are the plaintiffs' allegations; the docket read on October 15, 2026 shows no ruling on the merits. | Source | |
| Dutcher et al. v. Google LLC and YouTube, LLC (YouTube TV automatic renewal class action) Docket 20CV366905 | Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara | — | Filed | Filed — no final outcome recorded The court-authorized notice describes a proposed class settlement of claims that YouTube and Google did not follow all disclosure requirements of California's automatic renewal law for YouTube TV. The settlement website and notice say preliminary approval was granted on June 18, 2026; the fund would be $7,500,000 (non-reversionary); the class is people who paid for at least one renewal term of a YouTube TV subscription purchased via YouTube billing from February 1, 2017 to October 29, 2021; the claim, exclusion and objection deadline was August 30, 2026; and the final-approval hearing is scheduled for October 15, 2026. They state that YouTube and Google deny all allegations and that the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing. No final-approval order had been published on the settlement website as of October 15, 2026; payments are made only after final approval and any appeals. | Source |
Related Complaints
Names this company in a role other than the primary subject — not necessarily current or complete.
Company Relationships
- Affiliated with: Google LLC
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I contact YouTube support?
YouTube Help publishes a support flow at support.google.com/youtube/gethelp where you describe the issue and are directed to help topics and contact options. The help articles also point billing problems to Google payments, Google Play or Apple depending on how you were billed.
How long do I have to appeal a YouTube strike or video removal?
The appeal article states that warnings and strikes can be appealed for 6 months after they were issued and content removals for up to 1 year. The article also says each strike can be appealed only once, that there is no additional penalty for appeals that are rejected, and that deleting the video does not resolve a strike (after deleting it you cannot appeal again).
What can I do if my YouTube account was terminated?
The Terms say that if you believe a termination or suspension was made in error you can appeal using the form linked in the Terms, and that YouTube will give the reason unless it reasonably believes doing so would violate law, compromise an investigation or security, or cause harm.
Who operates YouTube?
The Terms of Service for U.S. users say the entity providing the Service is Google LLC, a Delaware company at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, and refer to other companies in the Alphabet Inc. group as Affiliates.
What did the FTC order against YouTube say?
The FTC release dated September 4, 2019 reports a $170 million payment by Google and YouTube ($136 million to the FTC, $34 million to New York) to resolve allegations that YouTube collected personal information from children without parental consent in violation of the COPPA Rule. The court entered the stipulated order on September 10, 2019.
What is a GOOGLE*YOUTUBE charge on my card?
Two posts in our archive describe card charges labelled GOOGLE*YOUTUBE that the writers did not recognize. YouTube's help pages direct billing questions to the Google payments page, Google Play or Apple, depending on how a membership was purchased; check those first and use the refund article's support route.