A Google Merchant Center disapproval means a product failed Google's requirements and may stop showing on Shopping ads and free listings until you fix it (Google Merchant Center Help, Fixing Merchant Center disapprovals for product data quality violations). Google's fix is to review the disapproved products, correct the product data and upload it again (same source). Find each issue on the Needs attention tab, fix it where your feed is built, and request a review when needed.
Disapprovals, warnings and suspensions
As of October 2026, Google's data quality page describes three levels (Google Merchant Center Help, Fixing Merchant Center disapprovals for product data quality violations):
| Level | What happens |
|---|---|
| Product disapproved | The product may stop showing on Shopping ads and free listings. |
| Product warning | The product continues to show, with reduced performance. |
| Account warning, then suspension | You get a warning email with examples and a deadline; if the issues remain unresolved, the account is suspended and all items are disabled. |
Some policy violations skip the warning entirely: egregious misrepresentation suspends an account upon detection and without prior warning (Google Merchant Center Help, Misrepresentation).
Where to find your issues
Product issues are on the Needs attention tab under Products (Google Merchant Center Help, The "Needs attention" tab):
- Up to three summary cards show the issues with the biggest impact on your account, and can include account-level and product-level issues.
- With the Prioritized fixes toggle on, issues with little or no impact may be hidden; turn it off to see all issues.
- The product list below can be filtered by click potential, issue, status or title, and you can download any view.
Account-level issues appear in a banner at the top of your account, or under Needs attention > View setup and policy issues (Google Merchant Center Help, Request a review of your issues).
Fix issues at the source, in bulk
Almost every Google "How to fix" page offers the same two routes: edit products one by one under Needs attention, or download the .csv list of affected products, correct your product data and upload it again; changes typically take 24–72 hours to show on the Needs attention page (Google Merchant Center Help, How to fix: Missing product price).
If your products come from a store, plugin or feed tool, edits made in Merchant Center are overwritten by the next upload. Fix the value where the feed is built: in the store, or with field mapping and transformation rules in Product Feed Master, which apply on every sync. The free feed checker finds data-level problems in a feed file before Google does, and the Merchant Center error lookup finds the guide for an issue you paste in.
Common disapprovals and how to fix them
| Area | Issues in Merchant Center | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Missing product price, Invalid product price, Invalid currency, Invalid sale price | Invalid or missing price |
| Price | Mismatched product price | Price mismatch |
| Availability | Invalid product availability | Invalid availability |
| Availability | Mismatched product availability | Mismatched availability |
| Images | Missing product image, Unable to show image | Missing product image |
| Images | Image too small | Image too small |
| Images | Text on image | Text on image |
| Landing page | Product page unavailable, Unavailable mobile landing page | Product page unavailable |
| Text | Text too long, Missing product title, Missing product description | Title and description errors |
| Text | Excessive capitalization, Additional or promotional info | Excessive capitalization |
| Identifiers | Missing or incorrect GTIN, Incorrect product identifier | GTIN, MPN and identifier_exists |
| Identifiers | Missing brand, Invalid brand value | Missing or invalid brand |
| Identifiers | Product ID too long, Duplicate identifier | Product ID errors |
| Shipping | Missing shipping costs, Missing shipping sub-attribute | Missing shipping costs |
| Data source | Scheduled fetch failures | Scheduled fetch failed |
| Data source | Invalid UTF-8 encoding, Invalid character encoding | Invalid UTF-8 encoding |
| Policy | Misrepresentation | Misrepresentation |
Requesting a review
For a product-level issue, open the product's detail page; if you've resolved the issue, select I fixed the issue and then Request review (Google Merchant Center Help, Request a review of your issues). For account-level issues (same source):
- A review may take up to 7 business days, and you get an email when it's done.
- During a warning period of 7 or 28 days you can request one courtesy review.
- If issues aren't resolved by the second review attempt, a one-week cool-down period may begin and may increase with each unsuccessful review; Google support can't shorten it.
- Identity verification is often required first, and your product data source must not be empty.
Because review attempts are limited, fix everything you can find before you request an account review.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my products disapproved in Google Merchant Center?
Because the product data, the landing page or the account doesn't meet Google's requirements for a destination. The Needs attention tab names the issue for each product; each issue has its own fix.
How long does it take for disapproved products to be approved again?
For most data issues, Google says changes take 24–72 hours to show on the Needs attention page. Account reviews may take up to 7 business days.
What is the difference between a disapproval and a warning?
A disapproved product may stop showing on Shopping ads and free listings. A product with a warning keeps showing, with reduced performance.
Can disapprovals lead to an account suspension?
Yes. Unresolved data quality issues can lead to an account warning and then suspension, and some policy violations, such as egregious misrepresentation, suspend an account without prior warning.
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help, Fixing Merchant Center disapprovals for product data quality violations
- Google Merchant Center Help, The "Needs attention" tab
- Google Merchant Center Help, Request a review of your issues
- Google Merchant Center Help, Misrepresentation
- Google Merchant Center Help, How to fix: Missing product price