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Misrepresentation

Misrepresentation is Google's Shopping policy against presenting a business, its products or its offers in a way that misleads shoppers.

How it works

The policy covers who the store is and what it promises. Google’s examples include:

  • giving a false identity or false contact details
  • offering products the store doesn’t have or can’t deliver
  • posing as another brand or as its certified reseller
  • hiding the full cost or the shipping terms
  • having a return policy that is unclear or hard to find
  • promoting goods that are out of stock or deals that have ended

To check for misrepresentation, Google may review the store’s products, website and accounts, and third-party sources. Google treats violations of this policy as egregious. It suspends the Merchant Center account as soon as it detects one, without the warning email and the 7 or 28 days to fix that most other violations get.

Google reinstates accounts only “in compelling circumstances”. Before you appeal, it advises following its best practices and gathering proof, such as a partnership agreement. Our guide to misrepresentation suspension in Merchant Center sets out a recovery plan.

Where you see it

  • Merchant Center: a banner at the top of the account, and Products → Needs attention → View setup and policy issues.
  • Merchant API: the account issue misrepresentation-of-self-or-products-unacceptable-business-practice-policy.

Not to be confused with

  • Account suspension — the block itself. Misrepresentation is one possible cause, and from the outside the others look the same. Our guide to a suspended Merchant Center account shows how to tell the causes apart.
  • Business verification — a check of who runs the account. Misrepresentation is about what the store tells shoppers.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Merchant Center and Google Ads share one Misrepresentation policy.” Right: Google has two policies with this name: one among the Shopping ads policies in Merchant Center, the other among the Google Ads policies. Each has its own text and its own enforcement.

Sources

  • Misrepresentation (Merchant Center Help) — scope, suspension without warning, appeals. Checked 2 October 2026 (archived copy of 4 September 2026).
  • Issues in Merchant Center — where account-level issues show. Checked 2 October 2026 (archived copy of 13 June 2026).
  • REST Resource: accounts.issues (Merchant API) — the issue name. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • Misrepresentation (Google Ads policies) — the separate Google Ads policy. Checked 2 October 2026 (archived copy of 28 September 2026).