YouTube cancels Premium subscriptions obtained via VPN in countries with lower prices, sparking the anger of those who had exploited this “trick”.
YouTube is one of the most popular entertainment platforms, offering a freemium model that allows users to watch content for free with ads, or subscribe to YouTube Premium to eliminate ads and access additional features. Now it has emerged that the company is stepping up its fight against those trying to game the system to get cheap Premium subscriptions.
In recent years, YouTube has aggressively fought against ad blocker, with the closure of the Vanced project and the idea of injecting server-side ads to discourage users from blocking ads. In some countries, however, YouTube cannot legally show ads, and many users use VPN to avoid ads without incurring blocks. This trick is also used to get Premium subscriptions at lower prices.
Premium subscription prices vary by region. Some users, therefore, have used VPNs to spoof their location while signing up, thus paying much lower rates. On Reddit, there are numerous posts explaining how to do it. For example, a user in the UK, where Premium costs £12.99 a month, used a VPN and paid just £2.30 a month.
Recently, however, several posts on Reddit revealed that YouTube is canceling these cheaper Premium subscriptions. A user contacted customer support to ask for an explanation and was told that the subscriber was “transferred” in a location other than the initial one. In this case, the user had used a Ukrainian VPN to sign up from the UK, and YouTube likely detected the location change thanks to the IP addresses and device signatures associated with the Google account.
Paying a lower rate might seem ethical compared to using ad blockers, but users who see their subscription canceled must reactivate it by paying the local rate. To prevent abuse of this loophole, YouTube now requires a local paper to sign up for Premium, making it impossible to sign up with a Ukrainian VPN using an American card.
While this system seems foolproof, the long-term effectiveness of YouTube’s methods will only be seen with time. The fight against VPN abuse and ad blockers shows how serious YouTube is about protecting its revenue and maintaining a fair ecosystem for advertisers and users.
If you’re thinking of using a VPN to save on your YouTube Premium subscription, be careful. The company is actively monitoring these practices and may cancel your subscription, forcing you to pay the full fee.
