Understanding account-level enforcement for policy violations

We want everyone to have a safe and positive experience when visiting Google and our partner sites. To help make that a reality, we've developed a set of policies that we expect merchants to follow. When merchants don't follow these policies, we might disapprove their items to let them know that something's not right. When they continue to break the rules or break the rules egregiously, then we may have to suspend those accounts.

Note: Review the Merchant Center Terms of Service and the Shopping ads policies carefully before submitting your products to Merchant Center to prevent account suspensions.

How it works

Initial review

When you upload items to your account for the first time, your items and website will be subject to an initial review to ensure they meet our requirements and Shopping ads policies. This process can take up to 3 business days and during that time your products will show as ‘Pending’ on the Diagnostics page. Additional changes to your product data after you upload items may further delay the review process. If the review reveals that your products or website do not comply with the Shopping ads policies, your account will be suspended immediately and you will receive a notification email with further details. If the review is successful, your products will become eligible to serve in Shopping ads.

Note: If your account has outstanding policy issues, it may postpone the review process.

Warnings

Merchant Center accounts are reviewed regularly. If it’s found that your products or website are not in compliance with Shopping ads policies, you’ll receive a warning email with more details about the issue and how to fix it and a timeframe in which to fix your issues. During the warning period, your products will continue to appear in Shopping ads. The warning period will also be displayed in your account on the Diagnostics page, under Account issues page.

Note: In some cases when an egregious policy issue is detected, no warning is given and the account is suspended immediately.

Account suspension

If your account is suspended, you’ll receive a series of emails containing all of the relevant information related to Shopping ads policies detected and account suspension.

Your account or website will be reviewed at the end of the warning period. If all issues are resolved, the warning will be lifted and your ads will continue serving as normal. If any of the issues are not resolved, your account will be suspended and all of your products will be disabled from Shopping ads. You’ll receive an email notification stating that your account has been suspended. You’ll also see your account status on the Home and the Diagnostics pages of your account.

Important: If your account is suspended, your items will no longer show in Shopping ads. They will, however, still be available for other destinations. The Google account used to access the Merchant Center account will not be affected and you will still be able to use it to access other Google products.

Note: Messages regarding Shopping ads policies and account suspension are temporarily stored in the account message archive of the impacted account.

Instructions for requesting review

Click the button below to be redirected to the Diagnostics section of your account.

Request review

Or, follow these instructions.

1. Sign in to your Merchant Center Account.
2. Click Products on the navigation menu, then click Diagnostics.
3. Click the Account issues tab.
4. Locate the account-level issue that you would like to have reviewed.
5. Make sure that there are in-stock products uploaded and all issues for the affected target country are resolved.
6. Click Request review.
7. Read the pop-up window to ensure that you understand the review process, and its requirements and limitations.
8. Check the box and click Request review.

Note: Review requests can take up to 7 days to complete. You’ll receive an email notification once the review has been completed.

Cool down period

If your account is already suspended, you’ll have 2 opportunities to request an account review before a cool down period is initiated for further reviews.

The process will then continue as follows:

• If your issues aren’t resolved by the second review attempt, a one-week cool down period will begin. During this time, the review button will be disabled.
• With each unsuccessful review afterwards, a progressive one-week cool down period may be applied.
• During this cool down period, your account will remain suspended. You won’t be able to request another review during this time.
• Use the cool down period to review and fix your account, data and website issue(s) as support may be limited until your issues are addressed.
• After the cool down period passes, the "Request review" button will be available again.
• You can see the end date for any cool down period by navigating to the "Diagnostics" page in Merchant Center and clicking the “Account issues” tab.