Why Google disapproves products: the most common mistakes
Short answer
Google disapproves a product when your product data doesn’t match the product page, doesn’t follow the product data specification or breaks Google’s policies. For Germany, add: prices including VAT in euros, shipping costs and, for goods sold by weight or volume, the unit price. Every issue is listed in Merchant Center under "Products", in the "Needs attention" tab.
This article is for information only. Not legal advice. Your lawyer or your legal‑text provider approves your legal texts.
Warning or disapproval: what the status means
Merchant Center is Google’s merchant account for product data. Your products arrive there before they appear in Shopping ads and free product listings. Google distinguishes two kinds of issues1:
Product‑level issues affect single products only, account‑level issues all of them. If the price or availability differs between your product data and the product page, Google may disapprove the affected products as a precaution1. So what counts for Google is what the product page says, not only the file you upload.
The mistakes Google itself names as common
We don’t give frequency figures of our own. But in the Merchant Center help Google keeps a list of common website issues that can lead to a disapproval1: placeholder content, broken links, missing or conflicting information, product descriptions that are too short, mismatched categories, a robots.txt that locks Google out (the file that tells search engines’ crawlers which pages they may read), product pages that can’t be reached, and redirects to general pages.
The table sorts these and further mistakes from Google’s product data specification by where you see them and what helps. An attribute is a field in your product data, such as "price" or "shipping".
| Mistake | Where you see it | What helps |
|---|---|---|
| Price differs from the product page | Products, "Needs attention" tab: "Mismatched product price"2 | Change the price in the product data and in the store at the same time, especially when a promotion starts and ends. The price must be in the page’s HTML, not loaded later via JavaScript2 |
| Availability differs | Products, "Needs attention" tab1 | Show the stock status clearly on the product page; mark goods that can’t be delivered as sold out or disable the buy button3 |
| Shipping costs missing | Products, "Needs attention" tab1 | For Germany, Google requires shipping costs: in the account’s shipping settings or in the "shipping" attribute, free shipping as 0 EUR45 |
| Price without VAT or in the wrong currency | Products, "Needs attention" tab1 | Submit the price including VAT in euros, exactly as on the product page and at checkout5 |
| Unit price missing | Products, "Needs attention" tab1 | For goods sold by weight, volume, length or area, give "unit pricing measure" and "unit pricing base measure"65 |
| Image with promotion, placeholder or too small | Products, "Needs attention" tab1 | The whole product without promotional text, watermark or logo overlay, at least 500 × 500 pixels7 |
| Product page can’t be reached, or a redirect | Products, "Needs attention" tab1 | Link straight to the product page, not to the home or a category page; allow Googlebot in robots.txt, for images too17 |
| GTIN missing or wrong | Products, "Needs attention" tab; visibility may be limited8 | Enter the GTIN per variant, never guess. Your own products without a GTIN assigned by the manufacturer don’t need one; then give the brand and the part number (MPN)8 |
| Contact details or return policy missing | Account level: the account can be disapproved, suspended or limited910 | A way to contact you in the store and the same company details as in Merchant Center; the returns page easy to find, for example in the footer910 |
The GTIN is the number under the barcode, in Europe usually the 13-digit EAN8.
What stores in Germany also need
Prices: for Germany you submit the price including VAT, in euros, and exactly as it appears on the product page and at checkout. Show all visitors the same price; Google allows different prices by visitor location only through its own programme for regional prices5.
Shipping: Germany is one of the countries where Google requires shipping costs for Shopping ads and product listings4. If you also deliver to pick‑up points such as Packstationen, set this up at account level; according to Google it isn’t available at product level4.
Unit price: in the EU, Google requires the unit pricing measure for products sold by weight, volume, length or area, because local rules require the price per unit6. In the store itself, § 4 PAngV (German law) governs this11. Make sure the two match.
Contact and returns: at least one way to contact you must be in the store, such as an address, phone number, e‑mail or contact form, and the company details must match those in Merchant Center9. The return policy belongs on the website where it is easy to see; in Merchant Center you can also set it under "Shipping and returns"1012. Under "Misrepresentation" Google prohibits, among other things, false contact details and deliberately hiding where you really ship from13.
Let’s check this in your store.
In the free store review we look at this point too; on working days we write to you within 24 hours.
How to fix a disapproval
- In Merchant Center, under "Products & store", open the "Products" page and choose the "Needs attention" tab. You can download the list as a CSV file1.
- For each issue, open its issue details page. It shows affected sample products and the steps to fix the issue1.
- First fix the cause in the store, then correct the product data and upload it again or refresh the connection to the store1.
- Once the fixes are live, a small change to the product or a click on "Appeal" triggers a new crawl of the pages. According to Google this usually finishes within 24 to 48 hours1.
- To prevent recurring differences in price and availability, you can turn on automatic updates. Google can then take the values from the structured data of your product page. Even so, resubmit your product data regularly125.
Checklist before every upload
Product data for Google, Germany
Go through the list for every new product and before every promotion. A mistake you spot before the upload doesn’t cost you days of lost visibility.
Next step
About this article
- Written by
- Qante Assist team
- First published
- Last updated
- Sources
- 13 sources
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take for a corrected product to appear again?
Once the fixes are live, a small change to the product or an appeal triggers a new crawl; according to Google this usually finishes within 24 to 48 hours. According to Google, the review of newly submitted products for Shopping ads can take 3 to 5 working days.
Do I need a GTIN for every product?
No. Google recommends the GTIN for all products that the manufacturer has assigned one to, and advises leaving it out if in doubt. For your own products without a GTIN from the manufacturer you don’t have to enter one; then the brand and the part number (MPN) help.
Is it enough to correct the mistake in Merchant Center only?
Not if the cause is in the store, such as a different price on the product page. Then the issue comes back at the next comparison. Fix the cause in the store first, and then update the product data.
Sources (13)
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeProbleme im Merchant Center (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeProblemlösung: Nicht übereinstimmender Produktpreis (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeVerfügbarkeit [availability] (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeVersand [shipping] (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfePreis [price] (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeMengeneinheit für Grundpreis [unit_pricing_measure] (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeBildlink [image_link] (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeGTIN [gtin] (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeProblemlösung: Kontaktdaten in Ihrem Onlineshop fehlen (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeProblemlösung: Fehlende Rückgabe- und Erstattungsrichtlinien in Ihrem Onlineshop (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz (gesetze-im-internet.de)§ 4 PAngV: Pflicht zur Angabe des Grundpreises (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeRückgabebedingungen für Shopping‑Anzeigen und Produkteinträge festlegen (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
- Google Merchant Center‑HilfeFalschdarstellung (opens in a new tab)Accessed: 1 October 2026
