Our policy
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Google doesn't want customers to feel misled by the content in your free listings, and that means being upfront, being honest, and providing them with the information that they need to make informed decisions. For this reason we don’t allow the following:
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Examples of what's not allowed
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Omission of relevant information
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Omitting material information when promoting content as benefiting a charitable or political organization.
- Examples: Failing to display a charity or tax exemption number for charitable donations; failing to disclose whether political donations are tax exempt or not
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Unavailable listings
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Promising products or promotional offers that aren’t available for customers.
- Examples: Listing products that aren’t stocked, promoting a deal that is no longer active, call-to-action in promotion that isn't easily achievable from the landing page
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Misleading or unrealistic listings
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Making false statements about your identity, qualifications, or the listed product.
- Examples: Claiming to be a certified reseller of goods when not actually certified, using a brand name to drive traffic to a different product on the site
Using false claims or claims that entice the customer with an improbable result (even if this result is possible) as the likely outcome that a customer can expect.
- Examples: ‘Miracle cures’ for medical ailments; extreme weight loss products
Falsely implying affiliation with, or endorsement by, another individual, organization, product, or service.
- Examples: Misleading use or mimicry of official government sites, stamps, seals, or agency names
Listings promoting harmful health claims, or content that relates to a current, major health crisis and contradicts authoritative scientific consensus.
- Examples (non-exhaustive): Anti-vaccine advocacy; denial of the existence of medical conditions such as AIDS or Covid-19; gay conversion therapy
Making claims that are demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process.
- Examples (non-exhaustive): Information about public voting procedures, political candidate eligibility based on age or birthplace, election results, incorrect claims that a public figure has died, or been involved in an accident
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Unacceptable business practices
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Concealing or misstating information about the business or product.
- Note that we may review information from multiple sources, including promotion, website, accounts, and 3rd-party sources, in determining whether a merchant or site is untrustworthy
- Examples: Enticing customers to part with money or information under false or unclear pretenses; presenting a false identity, business name, or contact information; charging customers for products typically available for free; ‘phishing’ for customers' information
Scamming customers by concealing or misstating information about your business, or product, or service.
- Examples: Impersonating brands or businesses by referencing or modifying the brand content in the listings, URL, destinations or misrepresenting yourself as the brand or business in customer interactions
- Examples: Enticing customers to part with money or information through a fictitious business that lacks the qualifications or capacity to provide the listed products
CSS product pages and/or merchants presented on CSS product pages that use “phishing” techniques to gather customer information.
- Examples: Sites that trick customers into revealing their personal information by mimicking a trusted retailer
We may take action on your CSS Center based on, for example, adverse regulatory warnings, settlements or rulings about a CSS’s business practices, or direct complaints from businesses and other entities about impersonation.
We take violations of this policy very seriously and consider them egregious. An egregious violation of our policies is a violation so serious that it is unlawful or poses significant harm to our customers. In determining whether a CSS or destination is violating this policy, we may review information from multiple sources including your product, website, accounts, and third-party sources. If we find violations of this policy, we’ll suspend your CSS Center upon detection and without prior warning, and you won’t be allowed to participate in listing content with us again.
If you believe there's been an error, and that you haven’t violated our policy, you can submit an appeal and explain why (see a link to instructions at the bottom of the page). We only reinstate accounts in compelling circumstances, and when there is good reason, so it's important that you take the time to be thorough, accurate, and honest. Learn more about suspended accounts and the appeal process.