Republic of Korea: Fair Trade Commission confirmed final consent decision requiring launch of YouTube Premium Lite, one-year YouTube Premium price freeze, and KRW 300 billion EBS music-industry programme

On 19 November 2025, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) confirmed the final consent decision requiring Google to launch the standalone YouTube Premium Lite subscription with advertising removal, background play, and offline storage. Google is also required to maintain the existing YouTube Premium price for one year with limited exceptions and to contribute KRW 300 billion to the Educational Broadcasting System for a four-year independent domestic music-industry support programme. This programme includes the “Space Gonggam” live-performance and video-production activities and the “Hello Rookie” new-artist discovery programme. The KFTC stated that the consent-decision procedure had been opened on 14 May 2025 and that a provisional consent decision was drafted following consultations with Google. An opinion-collection process with interested parties and relevant ministries took place from 15 July 2025 to 14 August 2025. After full-committee deliberation on 1 October 2025 and additional consultation with Google, the final consent decision was approved, with quarterly implementation monitoring to be conducted by the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency.