Account suspended for policy violation

What this error means

Your whole Merchant Center account is suspended, not a single product. Every item stops showing across Shopping ads and free listings at the same time, so this is the most urgent issue in the tool. It happens when Google decides your account breaks one of its policies rather than just having a data problem on one product.

Why it happens

Account suspension is Google's response to a policy problem it considers serious enough to affect the whole account. The exact policy behind your suspension is the one named in Merchant Center, so treat the list here as common triggers rather than a diagnosis. The most common one is misrepresentation, where the store does not give shoppers enough trust signals such as clear return and contact information, or where feed and website details do not line up. Other common triggers include selling prohibited or restricted products, a large share of products disapproved for the same policy problem, a website that is not fully functional, or a mismatch between what you advertise and what the landing page shows. For some policies Google first shows a warning with time to fix the issue before the suspension takes effect. For others the suspension is immediate.

How to fix it

1. Open Merchant Center and read the exact reason under the account issues or diagnostics section. Do not guess. The stated policy is what the review will check against.
2. Fix the root cause on your site, not just the symptom. For misrepresentation that usually means visible return, refund, shipping, and contact pages, a secure checkout, and consistent business details everywhere.
3. Make the feed and the website agree. Price, availability, and product details in the feed must match the landing page exactly.
4. Only when the cause is genuinely resolved, request a review from inside Merchant Center. Requesting a review before the fix is complete backfires: a failed review can trigger a cool-down period during which the review button is disabled and you cannot try again.
5. Wait for the decision. Submitting repeated requests does not speed it up and can lengthen the next cool-down.

Fixing it in your store

Most suspensions trace back to trust and consistency, both of which live in your store rather than your feed. Make sure the store has reachable return, refund, shipping, and contact pages linked in the footer, a checkout served over HTTPS, and business identity details that match the feed and any connected business profiles. Where the suspension points at product data, confirm that the feed your store or feed tool generates reflects the live prices and stock on the site, because a systematic mismatch across many products reads as misrepresentation rather than a one-off error.

How long until it clears

A reinstatement review typically takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. It clears only if the underlying policy issue is genuinely fixed. Because a failed review can trigger a cool-down before you can try again, a rushed request against an unresolved cause tends to make the next attempt slower, not faster.