Google Merchant Center Misrepresentation policy: what it covers

The headline policy

"Listings or destinations that deceive users by excluding relevant product information or providing misleading information about products and businesses can compromise user trust. The Misrepresentation policy strives to ensure that listings are clear, honest, and provide information that users need to make informed decisions. For this reason, we don't allow the following: Offers that prompt customers to initiate a purchase, download or other commitment without first providing all relevant information and getting the customer's explicit consent. Offers that represent you or your products in a way that isn't accurate, realistic and truthful."

In practice this is about the gap between what your store says and what a customer actually gets. If a price, a shipping cost, a delivery time, a dispatch location or an availability claim is not what the customer experiences at checkout or after buying, that gap is the risk.

1. Unacceptable business practices

"Violations of this policy are taken very seriously and are considered egregious. [...] If violations of this policy are found, your Google Merchant Center accounts will be suspended upon detection and without prior warning, and you will not be allowed to list content with us again."

"Scamming people by hiding or misrepresenting info about your business, products or services isn't allowed"

Selected examples from Google:

• "Presenting a false identity, business name or contact information"
• "Denying return and refund for a product despite having a clear refund or return policy that allows for returns and refunds"
• "Hiding, omitting or misrepresenting material details about your actual business location, operational headquarters or source of product fulfilment to mislead users or evade verification"
• "Intentionally hiding the actual location from which your products are dispatched to create a false impression of localised delivery"

"Falsely implying affiliation with, or endorsement by, another individual, organisation, product or service is not allowed" [...] "Making it seem like you're affiliated with another brand, organisation or government entity when you're not"

For a print-on-demand store, read this section twice. If a supplier prints and dispatches some products from the US or EU while your site implies everything ships from the UK, that is close to the pattern Google describes. Say where each product is dispatched from. Keep your business name, address, email and phone identical across your website, Merchant Center and payment processor, and never imply a partnership or endorsement you do not have.

2. Coordinated deceptive practices

"Coordinating with other sites or accounts and concealing or misrepresenting your identity or other material details about yourself, where your content relates to politics, social issues or matters of public concern is not allowed"

This section targets concealed-identity campaigns on political and public-interest topics. Most product stores never come near it. It is listed here so the reference is complete.

3. Dishonest pricing and transaction conditions

"Failure to clearly and conspicuously disclose the payment model or full expense that a user will bear before and after purchase is not allowed"

Selected examples from Google:

• "Not disclosing the total price, including all taxes, fees and surcharges"
• "Not disclosing all applicable delivery costs, including those for returns, if the designated return delivery location differs from the business address"

"Concealing transaction conditions by failing to clearly, conspicuously and consistently disclose post-purchase terms, fulfilment timelines or refund restrictions before a customer commits to a purchase is not allowed"

Selected examples from Google:

• "Claiming a delivery time in conspicuous text while hiding a longer order processing or handling delay in less visible secondary text"
• "Concealing that a customer will incur cross-border or international freight fees to complete a product return"
• "Setting international return windows to begin on the purchase date rather than the actual delivery date"

This is where shipping mismatches bite, and it sits in the no-warning group. If Merchant Center is fed one delivery price and checkout charges another, the full expense was not disclosed. If a product page says "3 to 5 day delivery" but a print-on-demand production time sits on top of that, the handling delay is hidden. We wrote up a real example of the first problem in Google only syncs your General shipping profile.

4. Unavailable offers

"Violations of this policy will not lead to immediate account suspension without prior warning. A warning will be issued at least seven days prior to any suspension of your account."

"Promising products or promotional offers that aren't available to users is not allowed" [...] "Listing items as available when you lack the capability to fulfil the orders"

Keep the availability in your feed in step with what you can actually fulfil. Google points to its availability attribute specification for the detail. Because this section comes with a warning, treat any Merchant Center warning email as a seven-day deadline, not a notice to file.

5. Manipulated media

"Manipulating media to deceive, defraud or mislead others is not allowed"

Google's example here is about doctored media on politics and matters of public concern. For product photos, the opening statement still applies: images should show what the customer will actually receive.

6. Unreliable claims

"Making inaccurate 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 is not allowed"

This mostly affects health, wellness and performance products. For any store, the safe habit is the same: do not promise an outcome you cannot back up, and replace unverifiable superlatives with specific, checkable facts.

Misrepresentation checklist for a Shopify store

These are the checks that map most directly onto the six sections for an ordinary Shopify seller.

• Business details match everywhere. Name, address, email and phone are identical on your footer, contact page, Merchant Center and payment processor. Section 1
• Dispatch location is stated. Especially for print-on-demand items made or shipped from another country. Sections 1 and 4
• Shipping rates match checkout. Every market in Merchant Center shows what checkout actually charges. Section 3
• Delivery times include production time. No headline delivery promise with the handling delay tucked away. Section 3
• Returns are clear. Easy to find, return window starting on delivery, and any return postage costs stated. Sections 1 and 3
• Feed availability is honest. Nothing advertised that you cannot fulfil. Section 4
• No borrowed authority. No implied partnerships, and the brand field names the real brand. Section 1
• Claims can be backed up. No improbable results or unverifiable superlatives. Opening statement and Section 6

Already suspended?

Google says that if you believe there has been an error you should appeal, but it is blunt about the bar:

"Accounts are only reinstated in compelling circumstances, and when there is good reason, so it's important that you take the time to be thorough, accurate and honest."

Fix every issue across the whole store before you appeal, not just the most visible one. For a real example, read how my own account came back after four denied reviews. These playbooks walk through it in order:

1. Diagnose your suspension: work out which policy and which section you actually hit.
2. Write a winning appeal: structure, evidence and tone.
3. Reinstatement strategy: what to do between appeal and decision.
4. Stay reinstated: the habits that stop it happening again.