"Account suspension caused by policy violations" in Merchant Center: what it means and how to fix it

What it usually looks like on a store

A suspension email names the policy. For the website-related ones (misrepresentation, insufficient contact information, missing return policy, website needs improvement), the fix is on your site, and the review only goes well once every gap is closed, not just the first one you notice.

What Google says

When Google finds a website or product data out of compliance, it usually sends a warning with a 7 or 28 day period to fix; if issues remain at the end, the account is suspended and all products stop showing. Egregious issues can cause immediate suspension without a warning. A new account's first review can take 3 to 5 business days and an account that fails it is suspended immediately.

If any of the issues aren't resolved, your account will be suspended and your products will be disabled from appearing across Google.Google, Issues in Merchant Center

In some cases when an egregious account-level issue is detected, no warning is given and the account is suspended immediately.Google, Issues in Merchant Center

This includes verifying the accuracy and consistency of product details, business information, policies, and contact information.Google, Fixing Merchant Center warnings and account suspensions for policy violations

Google support can’t bypass or shorten the cool down period.Google, Request a review of your issues

Also seen as: "Account suspended", "Suspended account for policy violation".

How to fix it

Based on Google's help pages, in plain language:

1. Read the suspension emails and the account-level issue to find the specific policy.
2. Audit the website for transparency: contact information, shipping and return details clear and in the footer.
3. Standardize business name, address and contact details across website, Merchant Center and payment profiles.
4. Confirm feed prices and availability exactly match landing pages.
5. Complete identity verification if prompted, then select I fixed the issue and Request review.

What to check on your website

These are the checks we run that relate to this issue. A problem in any of them can be enough on its own.

• Contact information: Shoppers can reach you: a contact page plus at least one direct method (email or phone), with no placeholder details.
• Business address: A real business or returns address is shown somewhere a shopper can find it (contact page, footer or policies).
• Return and refund policy: A return/refund policy page exists, is linked, and states the return window, item condition, how refunds are paid and how to start a return.
• Shipping policy: A shipping/delivery page exists and states costs and delivery times.
• Price matches the page: The price in your structured data and social meta tags appears on the page itself.
• Availability matches the page: Offer availability is set with a valid schema.org value and agrees with what the page shows (no "in stock" markup on a sold-out page).
• Consistent business identity: The business name is the same across your site name, structured data and footer, and your site says who the business is.
• Secure connection (HTTPS): Your homepage, product pages and checkout load over HTTPS, plain http redirects to https, and forms don't post to insecure addresses.
• No placeholder or template text: No lorem ipsum, default theme copy, sample products, "your store name" fields or coming-soon notices anywhere we looked.
• Broken links in your menus: Links in your header and footer lead to real pages, not 404 errors.

Requesting a review

Request a review from the account-level issue (banner, Needs attention, or Diagnostics). Identity verification may be required before the review button is available. Google says reviews may take up to 7 business days. If issues are not resolved by the second review attempt, a one-week cool down period may begin, it cannot be shortened by support, and it may increase with each unsuccessful review. During a 7 or 28 day warning period you can request one courtesy review.

Questions

Sources

• support.google.com/merchants/answer/12153802
• support.google.com/merchants/answer/13585221
• support.google.com/merchants/answer/13693195

Checked against Google's help pages on 2026-10-08. Listvane is an independent tool made by Great Work LLC. It isn't affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google. Google and Google Merchant Center are trademarks of Google LLC.