YouTube (Premium, Music Premium and YouTube TV): unauthorized charge
Confirm the GOOGLE*YouTube charge and rule out family purchases, then file a claim within 120 days.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 100% of 17 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites.
Collect
- statement line reading GOOGLE*YouTube
- date and amount
- email used for the claim
Steps
Check the statement. YouTube purchases show as GOOGLE*YouTube followed by the service name. If it does not match, contact your bank.
Ask family members, including children, whether they made the purchase. For an accidental purchase, request a refund instead.
If no one you know made it, file an unauthorized charge claim within 120 days.
Facts you can cite
- Deadline
Report an unauthorized YouTube charge "within 120 days of the transaction."
Source: support.google.com, verified 2026-10-12
Rules in force
- Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA) negative option requirements15 U.S.C. 8401-8405
A seller that charges consumers online through a negative option feature (for example an automatic renewal or a free trial that converts to paid) must clearly disclose all material terms before taking billing information, get the consumer's express informed consent before charging, and provide simple mechanisms to stop recurring charges. The FTC enforces ROSCA.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
4 citable points
- Policy
Before obtaining the consumer's billing information, the seller must provide text that "clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms of the transaction".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
The seller must obtain "a consumer's express informed consent before charging the consumer's credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
A post-transaction third-party seller may not charge a consumer for an online sale unless it discloses the material terms and gets express informed consent, including the consumer's full account number, before charging. An initial merchant may not pass a customer's account number or other billing information to such a seller.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
A ROSCA violation is treated as a violation of an FTC rule on unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and the FTC enforces ROSCA with its FTC Act powers and penalties. Report violations to the FTC.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Customer service
Written complaint
Card or bank dispute
Fair Credit Billing Act billing-error and purchase-dispute rights (Regulation Z)
Electronic Fund Transfer Act error resolution and unauthorized-transfer liability (Regulation E)
Card dispute for charges after a cancellation.
Federal regulator
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).
Watch out
- Cancel, refund and contact pages need sign-in to the Google account that pays for the membership.
- Memberships billed by Apple, Google Play, Pixel Pass, a mobile carrier or an internet provider must be cancelled and refunded through that party.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
YouTube (Premium, Music Premium and YouTube TV) charged me [amount] on [date] and I did not authorize it. Use Escalate Anything to get it reversed.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin