A Shopify store received a Google Merchant Center warning that users in Norway couldn’t complete purchases, with Google reporting the “Add to cart” button appeared greyed out and non-functional. The store owner verified the page worked correctly when tested via VPN and by Norwegian contacts, creating confusion about the actual issue.
Initial troubleshooting attempts:
Removed a Terms of Service checkbox at cart (required by payment processor) after suggestion it violated Google’s policy requiring unrestricted checkout access
Thoroughly reviewed Google’s checkout policies but found them vague and non-specific
Escalation:
Google suspended the Norway Merchant Center account for “Broken checkout experience,” later confirming the issue affected all countries, not just Norway (Norway was simply checked first).
Resolution:
The problem was ultimately traced to a theme/settings issue where an invisible page element was blocking the checkout button from being clickable. The store owner hired a developer (Tom W. from Speedboostr.com) who successfully fixed the technical issue. Google support was helpful in confirming the problem during the resolution process.
Summarized with AI on October 31.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
We have a long time working Shopify store. “Google & You tube” app is used to sync product feed with Google Merchant center and all was working fine.
Recently, Google raised a warning “User cannot complete purchase” just for one country - Norway.
Norway is one of the countries listed in the product feed country list.
According to Google, “Add to cart” button is not working, here is copy/paste from Google support (they have been checking one product page and report back for that page):
“Please be advised that upon clicking on the product landing page of the above product, the landing page of the product is not allowing us to add the product into the cart and we are not able to increase the quantity of the product as well. Please note that the “Add to cart” button has greyed out on your product website.”
Don’t read Google’s reply to strict, as they don’t give you specifics.
For example, when you add an item to the cart, you are forcing the user to accept terms and conditions, which is not allowed. Which in turn, does not allow the user to add the item to the cart when proceeding to the cart.
Google does not check all issues, with all countries, these are just random spot checks Google does. So best to fix this as soon as you can.
Thank you for taking your time to check the issue and reply.
My bank (credit card processor) requires check box with Terms of Service. A bit awkward situation.
Do you know where can I look this up, so I can show Google requirements to my bank? I browsed through all documentation Google shared with me (https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9158778?hl=en), but can’t find anything related to checkout box for Terms of Service.
Hello Perun, that’s the first time I have heard this. Sure you need the policy in the footer of all pages. But a forced checkbox, is not something I heard a payment processer requires. If it’s a legal requirement, then Google would not have an issue.
I don’t have a specific link that specifically mentions what I said, if you have read a few policies, you will notice that Google will not provide specific details, most likely to avoid having over bloated policies, with case scenarios, or they want to protect themselves by not specifying too many details.
This means if the user does not check the box, they can’t use the checkout. I know you have to bend the words to make it fit the scenario, but that is what I have always done with Google Policies, don’t read at face value, but from a broader perspective.
Please note, I do not represent Google and this is my personal opinion based on my knowledge only.
Again many thanks for the swift reply. I understand your position and I highly value your experience on this matter. I know you are not from Google.
Unfortunately, my bank is specific about this. That checkbox is clearly requested in their guides for setting everything up and they do an audit of the web site before making CC payments live. I will see what I can think of.
It would be helpful if Google is not so vague about these things, as I have no way convincing my bank that Google requires this to be removed.
UPDATE - Google suspended my Merchant Center Account [Perunmoto, Norway]. Only for Norway, for now.
I still have no clue why. As per advice from @EmmanuelFlossie , I removed the “accept the terms” checkbox. And I thoroughly checked everything. I couldn’t find an issue they report. Account is suspended for the following reason.
Your Merchant Center account is in violation of the following policies:
Broken checkout experience
Users are not able to complete the purchase of advertised products from your site. This could be due to multiple reasons including (but not limited to) site lacking a functioning ‘Buy’ button, landing page not loading properly or removal of advertised product from the site.
I contacted Google support and I received this answer.
“I have checked one of your products and tried completing the purchase and I would like to inform you that I am not able to make a purchase on your account and the add to cart button is not getting enabled upon clicking on that and not letting us to complete the checkout process.
Below is the example
Item Id: shopify_US_10060586025278_47389804724542
Product link: https://www.perunmoto.com/products/aprilia-tuareg-660-top-luggage-rack?variant=47389804724542¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic
Hence, I would suggest you to get in touch with your web developer and make sure that the website offers the guest user checkout experience for all the users so that the users can complete the checkout process without any hindrance.”
I don’t remember the details, but here are a few facts. Google support was helpful and they checked and confirmed that they can’t click the checkout button, not only for one country, but for all countries they checked later. Turns out, we got a warning for one country as that country was first checked by them.
Problem had something to do with the theme and our settings. I recall that some invisible part of the page was blocking the checkout button, so it was not click-able.
We hired Tom W. from Speedboostr.com and he resolved the issue.
I hope you will solve it ASAP, it was very stressful for me.
I don’t remember the details, but here are a few facts. Google support was
helpful and they checked and confirmed that they can’t click the checkout
button, not only for one country, but for all countries they checked later.
Turns out, we got a warning for one country as that country was first
checked by them.
Problem had something to do with the theme and our settings. I recall that
some invisible part of the page was blocking the checkout button, so it was
not click-able.
We hired Tom W. from Speedboostr.com and he resolved the issue.
I hope you will solve it ASAP, it was very stressful for me.