Persistent Google Merchant Center (GMC) “Misrepresentation” suspensions affecting a UK Shopify store (oilpads.co.uk), despite multiple reviews and compliance updates.
Recent timeline: The first GMC account reached maximum review attempts; Google support’s manual checks found no obvious policy issues, yet the appeal was denied. A second account was approved, ran ~2 weeks, then was suspended for Misrepresentation; support again saw no specific violations and the final appeal was denied. The second account has been closed for 30 days.
Compliance actions taken:
Legal business details in footer (company name, registered address, company number, VAT, phone/email), matched exactly in GMC.
Clear Contact, About, Shipping, Returns, Privacy, Terms pages; explicit UK-only shipping and delivery timelines; no drop-shipping.
Returns clarified (faulty items returned at seller’s expense); discounts not excessive; verified reviews via Judge.me.
Structured data/schema cleaned; no redirects or external checkout; ID verification completed.
Key terms: GMC is Google’s platform for product listings/ads; “Misrepresentation” is a policy suspension for misleading claims or insufficient business transparency.
Status: Unresolved. No root cause provided beyond generic policy explanations. The poster is considering a new account but suspects a domain-level issue and seeks insight on whether the cause is domain-, account-, or technical (theme/apps/feeds)-related.
Summarized with AI on February 17.
AI used: gpt-5.
I had an original Merchant Center account which eventually reached the maximum review attempts after repeated misrepresentation flags. Before the final attempt, Google support manually reviewed the site multiple times and confirmed they could not see any broken links, placeholder content, or obvious policy issues. They advised me to submit the review again, but it was still denied.
I then created a second Merchant Center account (same domain, same business details). It was approved and ran for approximately two weeks before being flagged again for Misrepresentation. I contacted support before submitting the final review attempt (as advised), and again they confirmed they could not see any specific violations. The third attempt was denied.
On my second account, I have made extensive compliance updates, including:
Full legal business details clearly displayed in the footer (R&C Components Ltd, registered address, company number, VAT with GB prefix, phone and email).
Matching business details exactly between the website and Merchant Center.
Clear Contact Us, About Us, Shipping, Returns, Privacy and Terms pages.
Explicit statement that all products are physically stocked in our Hull, UK warehouse and that we do not use drop-shipping.
Clear delivery timelines and UK-only shipping stated.
Clarified returns policy (faulty items returned at our expense).
Reviews clearly marked as collected via Judge.me from verified purchasers only.
Structured data cleaned up (no duplicate aggregate ratings, no incorrect product schema on homepage).
No excessive or misleading discounts.
No redirects or external checkout domains.
ID verification has also been completed.
Despite all of this, the suspension remains and no specific root cause has ever been provided beyond generic policy explanations.
It has now been 30 days since closing the second account. I’m considering creating a new Merchant Center account but expect the same issue if this is domain-level.
Has anyone experienced a persistent “Misrepresentation” flag like this on a legitimate UK business site and successfully resolved it?
Was it domain-related, account-related, or something more technical (theme, apps, feeds, etc.)?
I’ve handled several recurring Google Merchant Center “Misrepresentation” suspensions, and when support says they can’t see a violation, it usually means the trigger is algorithmic trust scoring rather than a visible policy issue. Since two accounts on the same domain were suspended, this is very likely domain-level trust rather than account-level. Creating another account without resolving the underlying trust signal will almost certainly trigger it again.
At this stage, I would focus on deeper consistency checks: make sure your business details match exactly across Companies House, domain WHOIS, and your Google Business Profile. Even small inconsistencies can affect automated trust scoring. I would also run a full technical audit of the theme and installed apps - I’ve seen suspensions caused by hidden demo schema, conflicting structured data from review apps, auto-generated descriptions that look templated, unsupported payment badges, and minor price mismatches between feed and landing pages.
Additionally, double-check VAT clarity, shipping cost visibility before checkout, and that availability in the feed always matches the product page. Even temporary mismatches can trigger misrepresentation flags.
If this were my client, I would rebuild the product feed from scratch, temporarily remove review stars and promotional badges, clean up schema completely, and then submit a detailed compliance summary during the review request. I would not open another Merchant Center account yet - that usually just burns another review attempt if the issue is domain-related.
Misrepresentation suspensions are frustrating, but once the underlying trust trigger is identified, they’re usually fixable.
Most misrepresentation flags I see (here at least) are not for brick and mortar stores. There is something that might possibly be worthwhile looking into, depending on how you set up your account.
What was the business name on the account (you don’t have to answer this)? I ask because your parent business structure, from your About Us page, doesn’t match the website address. Mismatches between brand and business name, even when the relationship is clearly spelled out, can trigger the auto flag. If the parent company is the named account, then I can definitely see a mismatch there. Was the account created from a distinct separate Google Account from “R&C Components Ltd”? If not, again, mismatch.
Truth be told, there’s countless reasons, this is just one I saw right away. Maybe it’s something, maybe not.
I would hold off on GMC for a while, and concentrate on other avenues. You still have your Business Profile and Google Maps? Use those to gain more views and reviews. Sync as much as you can, get as much legitimacy as you can out of whatever Google has left, which is quite a lot. Search Console is a huge tool. Business Profile helps in telling Google you’re legit.
We use the exact same structure for another brand (also under R&C Components Ltd) and that account has no issues at all. So the parent/sub-account setup itself doesn’t seem to trigger a flag in general.
I’m wondering whether this is more domain-history related rather than structural?. Do you think it would be worth creating a completely separate standalone Merchant Center account just for OilPads.co.uk (not as a sub-account under R&C Components Ltd) to see if it still flags? Or would Google likely still associate it at domain level regardless of account structure?
I’m trying to determine whether this is an account-structure issue or something deeper tied to the domain’s trust history.
Appreciate any thoughts — this one has been a challenge.
Update: This is Googles response to my enquiry. I have had this happen before and still get disapproved.
‘
• Support Specialist
After a thorough review of your website, I am pleased to confirm that all elements appear to be in order and meet the necessary requirements.
• Support Specialist
I understand your point and Google doesn’t want users to feel misled by the content promoted in Shopping ads and free listings, and that means being upfront, honest, and providing shoppers with the information that they need to make informed decisions.
• Support Specialist
Please allow me to take this case offline and get it checked with the wider team. I may get back to you via email the moment I get an update from the concerned team, however, it may take 24-28 business hours of time.
Your reviews are a little suspicious, because your website is only 193 days old, but you have 69 reviews, that is a lot of reviews in a short amount of time. Of course, if they are real from sales made on your website, nothing to worry about.
Some pages are duplicated, which will confuse Google, such as your contact page and shipping page. Make sure to only have 1 page, not two different ones.
Be careful with addresses that are associated with delivery companies such as UPS. Google sees this as fictional or possibly fake.
You will have more issues, so make sure to check the guides and policies:
Yes many legitimate businesses face persistent Google Merchant Center “Misrepresentation” suspensions even after full compliance. In most resolved cases, the issue turned out to be domain-level trust signals, not account setup.
Creating new Merchant Center accounts usually does not help once a domain has a history of suspensions Google continues to flag it. The root cause is often something subtle and technical, such as historical policy violations, past feed issues, theme/app scripts, trust signals Google can’t verify, or mismatches detected by automated crawlers (not visible to support agents).
The only paths that have worked for others are:
A full domain cleanup (apps, scripts, feeds, historical data)
A new domain with clean Merchant Center + Ads history
Or escalation via a policy specialist / partner channel (not standard support)
Re-creating accounts on the same domain almost always leads to the same result.
