Local legal requirements and safety standards

This policy applies to Shopping ads and local inventory ads

As a retailer, you are always responsible for ensuring that you comply with all applicable laws and regulations, in addition to Google’s Shopping ads policies. The guidelines below are intended to help highlight some areas where we’ve seen retailers run afoul of legal requirements in the past. However, this is not an exhaustive list of legal issues you may need to consider, and you must do your own research regarding appropriate promotional practices for the place where your business operates, as well as for any other places where your listings are showing.

In cases where you are promoting products that appear to violate local laws or regulations, we may notify you that your ads or free listings appear to violate legal requirements and are therefore not showing. 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 ads policies, when we find content that violates these requirements, we may block it from appearing, and in cases of repeated or egregious violations, we may ban you from promoting products with us.

See below for some examples of areas where promotions may be in violation of local legal requirements:

• Regulated products: A variety of restrictions may apply to your product depending on where in the world you promote or sell it. You should make sure you understand any restrictions that apply to the products you are promoting. Some examples include the following:
  • Infant food products in India
  • Radar detection products in France, Belgium, or Germany
  • Scientology in Germany or France
  • Gender determination in India
  • Information products with no age rating in Russia. Refer to the title attribute in the feed specification for specific details on how to comply with this requirement.
  • Military equipment in South Korea
  • Non-registered cell phones in South Korea
  • Religious content promoting conversion in Vietnam
     
• Recalled products: Google may disapprove items that have been subject to recall by the manufacturer or these government agencies:
  • U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
  • Rapid Alert System for non-food dangerous products (RAPEX)

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.

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.