The Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania (LRTK) has appealed to the European Commission, requesting an assessment of the advertising pricing practices applied by the video-sharing platform YouTube across different European Union Member States.

According to the LRTK, content creators on the platform may be subject to unequal advertising rates depending on the country in which they operate, directly affecting their ability to generate revenue and compete within the EU’s common market. This may result in creators producing identical content earning different amounts in different EU Member States, despite operating within the same digital market.

“If the same platform enables creators in one EU country to earn more than those in another, legitimate questions arise regarding equal rules of the game across the Union. This is especially important given that the principle of the common market is one of the EU’s core values,” said LRTK Chairperson Mantas Martišius.

There is a clear trend of both content and audiences increasingly shifting toward online platforms, making it particularly important to ensure that market participants operating within them are treated fairly and are not discriminated against based on their Member State.

Broader EU Context

These issues are becoming increasingly relevant across the European Union as platforms strengthen their influence over the advertising market and content monetization. The European Commission has already examined Google’s activities in the advertising technology (adtech) sector, while European publishers’ organizations have raised concerns regarding the distribution of advertising revenue and platform dominance.

In addition, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which has already entered into force, requires major platforms designated as “gatekeepers” to apply fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory conditions to business users. The European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) also seeks to ensure a fair competitive environment in the media market.

The LRTK notes that the issue it raises complements these broader discussions by drawing attention to a less examined aspect — the position of YouTube content creators and the potential application of differing advertising conditions between EU Member States.

Although differences in advertising pricing are often justified by varying advertising market values and differences in audience purchasing power, a fundamental question remains: whether such logic is compatible with the principles of the EU internal market when content creators operate within the same digital environment and compete with one another.

What Are CPM and RPM?

Advertising revenue on platforms is commonly assessed using indicators such as CPM (cost per thousand advertising impressions paid by advertisers) and RPM (the creator’s actual revenue per thousand views after platform fees). The values of these indicators may differ between Member States, meaning that creators in different countries may receive unequal compensation for the same content.

What the European Commission Is Being Asked to Assess

The European Commission is being asked to evaluate whether such practices are compatible with the principles of the EU common market and whether they comply with the DMA and EMFA provisions concerning fair and transparent business conditions.

The LRTK also points out that, in practice, obtaining sufficiently detailed information from platforms remains challenging, which limits the ability of national authorities to comprehensively assess the situation.

The LRTK expects that this issue will be examined at the EU level and contribute to the establishment of more uniform and transparent conditions for all content creators across the European Union.