Inappropriate content

This policy applies to Shopping ads and local inventory ads

Our policy

Google values diversity and respect for others, and we strive to avoid offending users, so we don’t allow ads or destinations that display shocking content or promote hatred, intolerance, discrimination, or violence.

Examples of what's not allowed

Dangerous or derogatory content

Content that incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, skin tone, or other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.

• Examples (non-exhaustive): Content promoting hate groups or hate group paraphernalia, content that encourages others to believe that a person or group is inhuman, inferior, or worthy of being hated
• Example case: Skin lightening products that imply superiority of social status, beauty, professional and/or relational opportunities of lighter skinned persons

Content that harasses, intimidates or bullies an individual or group of individuals

• Examples: Content that singles out someone for abuse or harassment

Content that threatens or advocates for physical or mental harm on oneself or others

• Examples: Content advocating suicide, anorexia, or other self-harm; promoting or advocating for harmful health or medical claims or practices; threatening someone with real-life harm or calling for the attack of another person; promoting, glorifying, or condoning violence against others, content made by or in support of terrorist groups or transnational drug trafficking organizations, or content that promotes terrorist acts, including recruitment, or that celebrates attacks by transnational drug trafficking or terrorist organizations.

Shocking content

Promotions containing violent language, gruesome imagery, or graphic images or accounts of physical trauma

• Examples: Crime scene or accident photos, execution photos

Promotions containing gratuitous portrayals of or sale of bodily fluids, human waste, or human tissue

• Examples: Blood, guts, gore, sexual fluids, human eggs or sperm

Sensitive Events

A "Sensitive Event" is an unforeseen event or development that creates significant risk to Google's ability to provide high quality, relevant information and ground truth, and reduce insensitive or exploitative content in prominent and monetized features. During a Sensitive Event, we may take a variety of actions to address these risks.

Examples of Sensitive Events include events with significant social, cultural, or political impact, such as civil emergencies, natural disasters, public health emergencies, terrorism and related activities, conflict, or mass acts of violence.

Examples of what we prohibit (non-exhaustive):

• Products or services that exploit, dismiss, or condone the Sensitive Event, including price gouging or artificially inflating prices that prohibits/restricts access to vital supplies; sale of products or services which may be insufficient for the demand during a Sensitive Event.
• Using keywords related to a Sensitive Event to attempt to drive additional traffic.
• Claims that victims of a Sensitive Event were responsible for their own tragedy or similar instances of victim blaming; claims that victims of a Sensitive Event are not deserving of remedy or support; claims that victims from certain countries were responsible or deserving of a global public health crisis.

Due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause ads containing content that exploits, dismisses, or condones the war.

As part of our recent suspension of ads in Russia, we will also pause ads on Google properties and networks globally for advertisers based in Russia.

Due to an ongoing sensitive event (the war in Ukraine), we are pausing ads from and for Russian Federation state-funded media.

Animal cruelty

Content that promotes cruelty or gratuitous violence towards animals

• Examples: Promoting animal cruelty for entertainment purposes, such as cock or dog fighting

Products that may be interpreted as trading in derived from threatened or extinct species

• Examples: Sale of shark fins or shark cartilage supplements, elephant ivory, tiger skins, rhino horn, dolphin oil, and elkhorn coral, or products containing these ingredients

What you can do

Here's what you can do if your product is disapproved or if your Merchant Center account is impacted:

Product disapproval

Products that don't comply with our policies may be disapproved and won't be eligible to serve.

1. Read our Shopping policies to learn what we don't allow.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Account disapproval

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.

1. Read our Shopping policies to learn what we don't allow.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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.

Account issue that limits product visibility

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.

1. Read our Shopping policies to learn what we don't allow.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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.

If you’re working with a third-party platform, some of these instructions may not apply to you. Refer to your third-party platform for instructions on how to resolve the issue and request a review. Learn how to find support if you use a non-Google platform.