Google Merchant Center account suspended: warnings, reviews and cool-down periods
A suspended Merchant Center account stops your products from showing in Shopping ads and free listings. Google’s process is predictable once you know it — and the biggest mistake is requesting a review before you’ve actually fixed the problem.
Warning first, then suspension
Google reviews Merchant Center accounts regularly. When it finds a policy problem, it usually sends a warning by email with the issue and a deadline — a warning period of 7 or 28 days. The warning also shows under Products → Needs attention (and on the Overview page of the Google & YouTube app if you use Shopify).
- During the warning, your products may show with limited visibility.
- If you remove the violating products during the warning, you don’t need to do anything else: the account is reviewed automatically at the end of the period.
- You can also request one courtesy review at any time during the warning period.
- If the period ends and the issue isn’t fixed, the account may be suspended.
For egregious policy issues, Google gives no warning and suspends immediately.
The most common reasons
From Google’s own list:
- Missing return and refund policy. Your site needs a clear policy — and if you don’t accept returns, it has to say so.
- Insufficient contact information. Your legal business name, physical address, phone number and email should be clearly listed and consistent with your Merchant Center settings.
- Misrepresentation. Anything that could mislead shoppers about you or your products — see Google Merchant Center misrepresentation for the full audit.
Requesting a review
- Fix the issue first. Audit your website and account against Google’s Shopping policies, and make sure your feed’s prices and availability exactly match your landing pages.
- Complete identity verification if asked. If the Needs attention tab asks for a government-issued ID or business registration documents, this is often required before the review button appears.
- Make sure your feed isn’t empty. If it is, add at least one product manually.
- Go to Products → Needs attention → View setup and policy issues, choose I fixed the issue (or I disagree with the issue), then Request review.
Reviews typically take 3–7 business days, and you get an email when it’s done.
The cool-down period
If your account is suspended, you get a limited number of review attempts before a cool-down period starts. During the cool-down the review button is disabled and the account stays suspended — and each further unsuccessful review can make the cool-down longer. You can see the end date under Needs attention → View setup and policy issues.
That’s why it pays to fix everything before the first request, rather than trying repeatedly.
If your Merchant Center account is linked to a suspended Google Ads account, Google says the Ads suspension has to be fixed first.