I have started an ecommerce business 2 months ago but since I am not a US resident (from South Africa) I had to form an LLC to get an EIN number so I could add the payment gateways offered for US residents addresses. To do that I had to add a US address. Now I want to connect my Google Merchant centre account but unsure of which address to use? As it comes back with misleading statement error if I use a US address but I get Misrespresentation error when I use my South African address. Please someone help.
Topic summary
A South African entrepreneur formed a U.S. LLC with a U.S. address to access payment gateways for their e-commerce business. When attempting to connect Google Merchant Center, they encountered errors regardless of which address they used—“misleading statement” with the U.S. address and “misrepresentation” with their South African address.
Root Cause:
Google Merchant Center flags conflicting business location information when merchants use virtual U.S. addresses without actually operating from the U.S., viewing this as misrepresentation.
Recommended Solution:
- Use the actual operational address in South Africa across all platforms
- Update website policies to clarify the real business location while noting global sales capability
- Ensure consistency across Shopify, Google Merchant Center, Facebook, PayPal, and all third-party accounts
- Remove any U.S. virtual addresses unless actually shipping from that location
- Follow Google’s merchant center guidelines and resubmit for review
The consensus is that Google requires transparency about true business location and does not permit merchants to appear based somewhere they are not physically operating.
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What’s likely happening is that Google Merchant Center is seeing conflicting business location info like using a U.S. LLC address without actually operating from the U.S. That can trigger either a “misleading business location” or “misrepresentation” error.
What helped me was aligning everything across Shopify and GMC with my real operational address. I updated my policies to explain where I’m based in but sell globally, and I removed any U.S. virtual address unless I actually ship from there. Once I did that and resubmitted the account for review, the issues were cleared.
Yes, what you are experiencing is correct by design. Google sees setting up virtual businesses as misleading.
You need to use your address, where you, the person is located in South Africa. Not a foreign address with a virtual address.
Google does not like it when merchants pretend to be somewhere they are not.
As you have already changed it, then most likely you have some other issues, make sure that everything you submit, has the South African address, your website, your accounts, including 3rd party Google accounts. As well as Facebook, PayPal, etc.
Then also ensure you follow all other requirements. Below a list:
https://support.google.com/google-ads/community-video/318699100
https://support.google.com/google-ads/community-guide/304792695
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310/follow-the-merchant-center-guidelines
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/13693865
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9158778
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150244
https://support.google.com/google-ads/community-guide/241068758