As a retailer, you are always responsible for ensuring that you comply with all applicable laws and regulations, in addition to Google’s Shopping policies. You must do your own research regarding appropriate listing and promotional practices for the place where your business operates, as well as for any other places where your Shopping listings are showing.
In cases where you are listing products that appear to violate local laws or regulations, we may notify you that your Shopping listings appear to violate legal requirements and are blocked from serving. We generally err on the side of caution in applying this policy because we don’t want to allow content of questionable legality.
As with all violations of our Shopping policies, when we find content that violates these requirements, we may block it from serving, and in cases of repeated or egregious violations, we may suspend your account.
Listings may violate local legal requirements where regulated products are restricted in certain countries. Google may also disapprove recalled products that have been subject to recall by the manufacturer or certain government agencies.
Safety standards restrictions
In addition to restricting regulated and recalled products, we also ban or limit certain kinds of products that might pose an unreasonable risk to health, safety, or property. For example, we have safety restrictions around the sale of hazardous materials and the transportation of live animals. We may disapprove items that violate health and safety standards or other regulatory standards.
Options to fix
Here's what you can do if your product is disapproved or if your Merchant Center account is impacted:
Product disapproval
- Read our Shopping ads policies to learn what we don't allow.
- Update your website. If your ad or listing directs to violating content, update your website to meet all policy requirements.
- Remove the violating products. You must remove non-compliant offers from your product data feed. You’ll receive an email with details about the violations.
- Update your product data in Merchant Center. Manually update your product data or wait for your automated upload schedule to run before requesting any reviews.
- Request a review or appeal. After fixing the issue or if you believe the disapproval is incorrect, you can request a review or appeal the decision.
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
- If you edit your product data via your chosen upload method (such as a file) or directly in Merchant Center, the affected products will be automatically re-reviewed.
- If you remove the violating products from your feed, no further action or review request is necessary.
- Standard appeal (if you disagree with the issue)
- For certain issues, you can dispute the violation. You may need to complete additional steps, such as providing an appeal reason and/or uploading required documentation.
- If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will be removed from Merchant Center.
- Bulk appeal (available in certain cases)
- For specific policy issues where you believe a large number of offers require review, you may be able to submit a single bulk appeal.
- ⚠️ Warning: Before submitting a bulk appeal, you must review your offers and remove any policy-violating items from your feed. Submitting a bulk appeal for a large set of offers risks immediate failure if violations are found. This may limit your ability to submit subsequent appeals for those products.
- You must remove any offers that are violating our policies from your feed before attempting to appeal in bulk.
- How to appeal in bulk: The bulk appeal option may not be available in all instances or when using third-party platforms.
- Option 1 - Under all products
- Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
- Navigate to the specific issue.
- Select “View fix”
- Select the option to disagree with the issue for all products.
- Review any informational prompts that appear.
- Select “Request review” to submit the appeal.
- Option 2 - Product details page
- From the product details page, selecting “Review and fix” will display the appeal options: “I disagree with the issue” and/or “I disagree with the issue for all products”.
- Third-party platforms
- If you use a third-party platform to list your products, consult that platform for available review options.
- If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center.
- Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
- Option 1 - Under all products
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
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, we may not issue a warning for egregious policy violations.
- Read our Shopping ads policies to learn what we don't allow.
- Update your website. If your ad or listing directs to violating content, update your website to meet all policy requirements.
- Remove the violating products. You must remove non-compliant offers from your product data feed. You’ll receive an email with details about the violations.
- Update your product data in Merchant Center. Manually update your product data or wait for your automated upload schedule to run before requesting any reviews.
- Request a review or appeal. After fixing the issue or if you believe the disapproval is incorrect, you can request a review or appeal the decision.
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
- If you edit your product data via your chosen upload method (such as a file) or directly in Merchant Center, the affected products will be automatically re-reviewed.
- If you remove the violating products from your feed, no further action or review request is necessary.
- Standard appeal (if you disagree with the issue)
- For certain issues, you can dispute the violation. You may need to complete additional steps, such as providing an appeal reason and/or uploading required documentation.
- If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will be removed from Merchant Center.
- Bulk appeal (available in certain cases)
- For specific policy issues where you believe a large number of offers require review, you may be able to submit a single bulk appeal.
- ⚠️ Warning: Before submitting a bulk appeal, you must review your offers and remove any policy-violating items from your feed. Submitting a bulk appeal for a large set of offers risks immediate failure if violations are found. This may limit your ability to submit subsequent appeals for those products.
- You must remove any offers that are violating our policies from your feed before attempting to appeal in bulk.
- How to appeal in bulk: The bulk appeal option may not be available in all instances or when using third-party platforms.
- Option 1 - Under all products
- Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
- Navigate to the specific issue.
- Select “View fix”
- Select the option to disagree with the issue for all products.
- Review any informational prompts that appear.
- Select “Request review” to submit the appeal.
- Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
- Option 2 - Product details page
- From the product details page, selecting “Review and fix” will display the appeal options: “I disagree with the issue” and/or “I disagree with the issue for all products”.
- Option 1 - Under all products
- Third-party platforms
- If you use a third-party platform to list your products, consult that platform for available review options.
- If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center.
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
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 Shopping ads and listings policies to learn what we don't allow.
- Update your website. If your ad or listing directs to violating content, update your website to meet all policy requirements.
- Remove the violating products. You must remove non-compliant offers from your product data feed. You’ll receive an email with details about the violations.
- Update your product data in Merchant Center. Manually update your product data or wait for your automated upload schedule to run before requesting any reviews.
- Request a review or appeal. After fixing the issue or if you believe the disapproval is incorrect, you can request a review or appeal the decision.
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
- If you edit your product data via your chosen upload method (such as a file) or directly in Merchant Center, the affected products will be automatically re-reviewed.
- If you remove the violating products from your feed, no further action or review request is necessary.
- Standard appeal (if you disagree with the issue)
- For certain issues, you can dispute the violation. You may need to complete additional steps, such as providing an appeal reason and/or uploading required documentation.
- If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will be removed from Merchant Center.
- Bulk appeal (available in certain cases)
- For specific policy issues where you believe a large number of offers require review, you may be able to submit a single bulk appeal.
- ⚠️ Warning: Before submitting a bulk appeal, you must review your offers and remove any policy-violating items from your feed. Submitting a bulk appeal for a large set of offers risks immediate failure if violations are found. This may limit your ability to submit subsequent appeals for those products.
- You must remove any offers that are violating our policies from your feed before attempting to appeal in bulk.
- How to appeal in bulk: The bulk appeal option may not be available in all instances or when using third-party platforms.
- Option 1 - Under all products
- Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
- Navigate to the specific issue.
- Select “View fix”
- Select the option to disagree with the issue for all products.
- Review any informational prompts that appear.
- Select “Request review” to submit the appeal.
- Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
- Option 2 - Product details page
- From the product details page, selecting “Review and fix” will display the appeal options: “I disagree with the issue” and/or “I disagree with the issue for all products”.
- Option 1 - Under all products
- Third-party platforms
- If you use a third-party platform to list your products, consult that platform for available review options.
- If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center.
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
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.