Our policy
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Google doesn't want customers to feel misled by the content promoted in your offers, and that means being upfront, honest, and providing them with the information that they need to make informed decisions. For this reason we don’t allow the following:
Learn more about Building trust with your customers. |
Violations of this policy are taken very seriously and are considered egregious. An egregious violation of Shopping policies is a violation so serious that it’s unlawful or poses significant harm to our users. In determining whether a merchant or destination is violating this policy, Google may review information from multiple sources including your promotion, website, accounts, and third-party sources. If violations of this policy are found, your Google accounts will be suspended upon detection and without prior warning, and you won’t be allowed to promote with Google Shopping again. If you believe there's been an error, and that you haven’t violated our policy, submit an appeal and explain why. Accounts are only reinstated in compelling circumstances, and when there’s good reason so it's important that you take the time to be thorough, accurate, and honest. Learn more about suspended accounts.
Below are some examples of what to avoid in your offers.
On this page
- Unacceptable business practices
- Misleading or unrealistic offers
- Omission of relevant information
- Unavailable offers
- Why this isn’t allowed
- Best practices (non-exhaustive)
- Tips for submitting your appeal
- What you can do
Unacceptable business practices
The following isn't allowed:
Scamming users by hiding or misrepresenting info about your business or product isn’t allowed. This means you can’t:
- Make it seem like you’re supported by another brand, organization or government entity when you’re not
- Offer products that you don't have or can't deliver, including not having the right licenses or qualifications
- Impersonate other brands or businesses in your offers or on your website to hide your identity or imply connections or qualifications
- Present a false identity, business name, or contact information
- Enticing customers to part with money or information under false or unclear pretenses
Examples (non-exhaustive):
- Charging customers for products typically available for free
- Impersonating brands or businesses by referencing or modifying the brand content in the listings, URL, destinations or misrepresenting yourself as the brand or business in customer interactions
- Enticing customers to part with money or information through a fictitious business that lacks the qualifications or capacity to provide the listed product
- Claiming to be a certified reseller of goods when not actually certified, using a brand name to drive traffic to a different product on the site
- Pretending to be a discount online retail store to entice people into buying products and then not delivering the items that they paid for
- Denying return and refund for a product despite having a clear refund or return policy that allows for returns and refunds
Offer destinations that use “phishing” techniques to gather user information
Examples (non-exhaustive):
- Sites that trick users into revealing their personal information by mimicking a trusted retailer
Misleading or unrealistic offers
The following isn’t allowed:
Using false claims or claims that entice the user with an improbable result (even if this result is possible) as the likely outcome that a user can expect
Examples:
- "Miracle cures" for medical ailments, such as extreme weight loss products
Falsely implying affiliation with, or endorsement by, another individual, organization, product, or service
Examples:
- Misleading use or mimicry of official government sites, stamps, seals, or agency names
Listings promoting harmful health claims, or content that relates to a current, major health crisis and contradicts authoritative scientific consensus
Examples (non-exhaustive):
- Anti-vaccine advocacy
- Denial of the existence of medical conditions such as AIDS or COVID-19
- Gay conversion therapy
Making claims that are proven false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process
Examples (non-exhaustive):
- Information about public voting procedures
- Political candidate eligibility based on age or birthplace
- Election results
- Incorrect claims that a public figure has died, or been involved in an accident
Content or claims that contradict authoritative scientific consensus on climate change
Omission of relevant information
The following isn’t allowed:
Failure to clearly and conspicuously disclose the payment model and full expense that a customer will bear before and after purchase
Examples (non-exhaustive):
- Pricing of products (total price, currency) may depend on additional conditions impacting the total cost for the user such as, auction pricing, membership fees, contract, payment schemes, additional purchase requirement, creating additional undisclosed payment obligations during payment processing
Failure to clearly and conspicuously disclose all related conditions before and after purchase
Examples (non-exhaustive):
- Missing merchant terms and conditions or shipping information
- Return and refund policy that is unclear, missing, or not easily discoverable.
Omitting material information when promoting content as benefiting a charitable or political organization
Examples (non-exhaustive):
- Failing to display a charity or tax exemption number for charitable donations
- Failing to disclose whether political donations are tax exempt or not
Unavailable offers
The following isn’t allowed:
Promising products or promotional offers that aren’t available for users
Examples:
- Promoting products that aren't stocked, promoting a deal that’s no longer active, call-to-action in promotion that isn't easily achievable from the landing page
- View the Product data specification attributes on availability and price for specific guidelines to comply with this policy.
We may take action on your account based on the following situations:
- Adverse regulatory warnings
- Settlements or rulings about a merchant’s business practices
- Direct complaints from businesses and other entities about impersonation
We take violations of this policy very seriously. An obvious violation of our Shopping ads policies is a violation so serious that it's unlawful or poses significant harm to our users.
We determine whether a merchant or destination is violating this policy by doing the following:
- Reviewing information from multiple sources including your product, website, accounts, and third-party sources.
- If we then find violations of this policy, we’ll suspend your Merchant Center account upon detection and without prior warning and you won't be allowed to participate in Shopping ads and free listings again. We may also restrict your Merchant Center account's product limit.
What can you do if you believe there’s been an error and you haven’t violated our policy
- You can submit an appeal and explain why.
- We only reinstate accounts in compelling circumstances and when there's good reason, so it's important that you take the time to be thorough, accurate, and honest.
Why this isn’t allowed
- It’s harmful to people: They can be exposed to scams, misleading information, or even dangerous products or services.
- It damages the overall advertising ecosystem: When people have bad experiences, they become less likely to trust any ads, which hurts all advertisers. Shopping Ads wants to maintain a safe and healthy ecosystem for everyone.
Best practices (non-exhaustive)
Review this non-exhaustive list of best practices to help ensure that your ads comply with this policy.
- Deliver what customers paid for: Provide the products or services customers purchased, meeting agreed-upon specifications.
- Describe your business on your website: Make sure your website has updated contact information and a clear explanation of what your company does, like on an "About us" page.
- Use your own branding: Use your own name, logo, images, and colors on your website and in your ads.
- Avoid using another brand’s identity in a misleading way: Avoid using another brand’s name, logo, images, and colors in ways that can trick people. Don’t misspell another brand’s name in your ad text, like “G00gle”. When referencing another brand, follow Google’s policy on trademarks.
- Be clear about your partnerships: If you're an official or authorized partner of another brand, ask them to mention you on their website in addition to making your relationship clear on your own website and ads. If you reference another brand but you're not an official or authorized partner, consider a disclaimer on your website and in your ads.
- Be qualified to do the work you advertise: Have all necessary certifications to provide your products and services. If you list any certifications on your website, make sure they’re up to date.
Tips for submitting your appeal
- Follow best practices: Implement the best practices you've been provided if you haven’t already.
- Explain your situation: If you're an official partner of another brand, describe your partnership and share any information that shows how you're connected.
- Share proof: This can include contracts, written agreements, a link to a credible news article that mentions about the connection and any public statements (like a social media post) from the brand or organization confirming the partnership.
- Complete verification: If asked, complete all tasks required for advertiser verification.
What you can do
Here's what you can do if your product is disapproved or if your Merchant Center account is impacted:
Products that don't comply with our policies may be disapproved. When a product is disapproved, it won't be eligible to serve.
- Read our policies to learn what we don't allow.
- Update your website. If your ad or listing leads to content that violates a policy, update your website to meet the requirements and be in compliance with our policies.
- Remove the violating products from your product data. You’ll receive an email with details about the violation.;
- If you have products in your product data that violate the policy (or policies), you'll need to remove the offers from your feed.
- Update your product data in Merchant Center. If you created a schedule for automatic uploads, update your product data manually or wait for your product data to be automatically updated before requesting any reviews.
- Request a review of your products or appeal the decision taken on this issue.
- If the violating products are removed, you won't need to request a review or take any additional action.
- If you fix your product-level issues by editing your product data via your chosen upload method (such as a file) or directly in Merchant Center, your products will be re-reviewed.
- For certain issues, you can disagree with the issue but you may need to complete additional steps such as provide an appeal reason and/or upload required documentation.
- If you use a third-party platform to list your products, you can refer to your third-party if you want to request a review. You won’t be able to do this in Merchant Center.
- If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center.
For most violations, we'll send you a warning email detailing the policy violation and give you 7 or 28 calendar days to fix your issue. However, a warning may not be issued for egregious policy violations.
- Read our policies to learn what we don't allow.
- Update your website. If your ad or listing leads to content that violates a policy, update your website to meet the requirements and be in compliance with our policies.
- Remove any violating products from your product data. You’ll receive an email with details about the violation. If you have products in your product data that violate the policy (or policies) you'll need to remove the offers from your feed.
- Update your data in Merchant Center.
- Review your account and submit any missing information or complete any unfinished steps.
- If you created a schedule for automatic uploads, update your product data manually or wait for your product data to be automatically updated before requesting any reviews.
- Make sure that your linked or associated account is issue-free before requesting a Merchant Center review. Learn more about how to fix Linked account suspensions.
- Request a review of your account or appeal the decision taken on this issue.
- If your account is still within the warning period, it will automatically be reviewed again at the end of the warning period. If the violating products are removed, you won't need to request an account review or take any additional action.
- If your account is suspended and you've taken actions to resolve the issue, request an account review.
- For certain issues, you can disagree with the issue but you may need to complete additional steps such as provide an appeal reason and/or upload required documentation.
- If you use a third-party platform to list your products, you can refer to your third-party if you want to request a review. You won’t be able to do this in Merchant Center.
Note: Account reviews typically take 7 business days, but may take longer for complex reviews. If you remove violating products, the warning will be removed. If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center. In the case of account suspension, we will approve the account and allow products to be displayed again.
Your account has an issue and is operating with reserved functionality, therefore your products have limited visibility. Check your email for a notice with details about the issue and steps to resolve it. Common issues include policy violations or missing account information.
- Read our policies to learn more about our requirements.
- Update your website. If your ad or listing leads to content that violates a policy, update your website to meet the requirements and be in compliance with our policies.
- Fix any other open policy violation in your account. Review your products and your account details.
- If products aren’t supported, remove them from your feed.
- If account details are missing, complete them in Merchant Center.
- Request a review of your account or appeal the decision taken on this issue.
- If your Merchant Center account is still within the warning period for certain policies, it will automatically be reviewed again at the end of the warning period.
- If your account is affected and you've resolved the issue, request a Merchant Center account review.
- For certain issues, you can disagree with the issue but you may need to complete additional steps such as provide an appeal reason and/or upload required documentation.
- If you use a third-party platform to list your products, you can refer to your third-party if you want to request a review. You won’t be able to do this in Merchant Center.
Note: Account reviews typically take 7 business days, but may take longer for complex reviews. If you remove violating products, the warning will be removed. If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center. In the case of account suspension, we will approve the account and allow products to be displayed again.
To ensure a safe and positive experience for customers, Google requires that retailers comply with all applicable laws and regulations in addition to our policies. It's important that you familiarize yourself with and keep up to date on these requirements for the place where your business operates, as well as any other places your ads are shown. When we find content that violates these requirements, we may block it from appearing. In cases of repeated or egregious violations, we may ban you from advertising content with us.
It’s not recommended to delete your suspended account and create a new one for the same business. Deleting an account won’t fix the suspension issue, it’ll be flagged again as the newly created account may also be suspended.