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If YouTube terminated your channel, appeal first in YouTube Studio, as the termination email explains. If YouTube upholds the decision, Article 21 of the Digital Services Act allows an independent review: ODS, run by ADR Center (certified by AGCOM, Resolution 501/24/CONS), is free, rules on admissibility within 10 days and decides within 90, without binding either side.
ADR Center: out-of-court dispute settlement body certified by AGCOM under Article 21 of the DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.
When YouTube terminates a channel, it sends an email explaining the reason, or shows the termination when you sign in to YouTube Studio. YouTube Help says you can still sign in to Studio to review the termination: below the termination info, click Begin Review, read the reason, choose to start an appeal, give a contact email address and explain why you disagree. If those steps do not work for you, the same page offers an alternative form, and you hear about the outcome by email (Channel or account terminations). Terminations for copyright claims follow a different path, the counter-notification. While a channel is terminated, YouTube does not allow you to use, own or create other channels. ODS is not part of YouTube or Google: it is not a help desk, it has no access to your channel and it cannot reinstate it. It comes in later, once YouTube has answered your appeal.
If YouTube rejects your appeal and the channel stays terminated, EU law gives you one more route. Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act, lets anyone affected by a decision on their account choose a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body to review it. Google has a dedicated page, linked from YouTube Help: if the visibility of your content, your ability to monetise content or your account has been restricted, you may be able to refer the matter to an out-of-court dispute settlement body, and Google suggests using its internal appeal first (European Union Digital Services Act Resolution Options). You file the dispute on the chosen body's own website. ODS is run by ADR Center, a body certified by AGCOM, Italy's Digital Services Coordinator, under Resolution 501/24/CONS, and it handles cases in 16 languages, English included. Keep the termination email and the email with the outcome of your appeal: they are the core of your file.
Yes. Opening a case with ODS about a terminated YouTube channel costs you nothing, and the form asks for no payment at any point. That is not a special offer. Article 21 of the Digital Services Act requires the procedure to be free of charge for users, or available at a nominal fee, and it charges the dispute settlement body's fees to the platform, here YouTube. If the decision goes YouTube's way, you do not have to reimburse YouTube's costs unless the body finds you acted in manifest bad faith. The fact that the platform pays does not put ODS on YouTube's side. To be certified, a body must be impartial and independent, financially too, of both YouTube and the people who use it, and the people who decide must be paid in a way that does not depend on how the case ends. The same applies if you were in the YouTube Partner Program: the review looks at the termination decision, and asking for it costs nothing.
Once your file is complete, ODS decides within 10 days whether the YouTube case is admissible. The decision on the merits comes within 90 days, the deadline set by Article 21 of the Digital Services Act, which allows an extension for highly complex disputes. The case is decided by independent experts, who give reasons for their view. The decision is not binding: the Act says a certified body "shall not have the power to impose a binding settlement of the dispute on the parties". Google says the same on its DSA page: it will work with the body where required by law and is not bound by its decisions. It applies to you as well, since you are free not to accept the outcome. Both sides must still take part in good faith. Asking for a review takes nothing away from you: Article 21 keeps your right to challenge YouTube's decision before a court at any stage.
Before opening a case about a terminated YouTube channel, you need to have appealed to YouTube first, because ODS steps in after the platform's internal complaint. The ODS form then asks for the platform and the reason, your country of residence in the EU, a description of what happened, the date you appealed to YouTube and the reply you got, the reference code if YouTube gave you one, and your account details: the channel name, the Google account email you use on YouTube and the link to the channel. You can attach the termination email, the email with the outcome of your appeal and screenshots from YouTube Studio. If you know which policy YouTube says you broke, add it. You also give your contact details and the language you want to hear from us in. Finally, you confirm that the information is true and that no other dispute settlement body is already handling the same decision. After you submit, we email you a link to confirm the request.
ADR Center: out-of-court dispute settlement body certified by AGCOM under Article 21 of the DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.
Last updated: 28 September 2026
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