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If Google suspended your Merchant Center account or disapproved products on Google Shopping, ask for a review first. If the decision stands, Article 21 of the Digital Services Act allows an independent review, merchants included: ODS, run by ADR Center (certified by AGCOM, Resolution 501/24/CONS), is free, rules on admissibility within 10 days and issues a non-binding decision within 90.
ADR Center: out-of-court dispute settlement body certified by AGCOM under Article 21 of the DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.
Google separates Merchant Center issues into two levels: product issues, with warnings and disapprovals, and account issues, with warnings and suspensions. Disapproved products stop showing across Google; when an account is suspended, its products are disabled from appearing across Google and you receive an email saying so (Issues in Merchant Center). To ask for a review, Google Merchant Center Help describes this path: Products, the Needs attention tab, View setup and policy issues; then choose I fixed the issue or I disagree with the issue, and select Request review (Request a review of your issues). Google warns that identity verification may be required first, that you may only have one chance to disagree, and that a cool-down period can follow a rejected review. ODS is not part of Google: it is not Merchant Center support and it cannot reinstate your account. It comes in after Google's review is over.
Many Merchant Center suspensions cite the policy Google calls Misrepresentation. Google treats it as an egregious violation: its Help Center says that when it finds a violation it suspends the account upon detection and without prior warning, and that it only reinstates accounts in compelling circumstances and when there is good reason, which is why it asks merchants to be thorough, accurate and honest in their review request (Misrepresentation). The same page also describes how to disagree with the issue for all products at once. Before requesting a review, it helps to look at your store's website as a customer would: who is selling, how to contact them, prices, costs and returns. If Google keeps the Google Shopping suspension after its review, an independent review looks at whether the decision is consistent with Google's policies and the Digital Services Act. Nobody, ODS included, can tell you in advance how it will end: the experts look at the facts of your case and give reasons.
Yes. Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act, applies to "recipients of the service", which the Act defines as any natural or legal person who uses an intermediary service, in particular for the purposes of seeking information or making it accessible. A merchant publishing products on Google Shopping fits that definition, and for traders suspended from a marketplace over missing identification details the Act expressly refers to the internal complaint system and Article 21. Google's page on the Act lists as eligible an account or content visibility restricted for a policy violation, and a trader rejected or suspended for failing identity verification (European Union Digital Services Act Resolution Options). And on the page listing which identifiers to include in an out-of-court dispute under the Act, Google lists Shopping and asks for the Reference ID shown in the Merchant Center notification (Content Identifiers Assistance). For merchants Google also offers voluntary mediation: a separate route with its own terms. ODS is run by ADR Center, a body certified by AGCOM under Resolution 501/24/CONS.
An ODS review of a Google Shopping decision is free, and the form asks for no payment. Article 21 of the Digital Services Act requires the procedure to be free of charge for the recipient of the service, or available at a nominal fee, and charges the body's fees to the platform, here Google; if the decision goes Google's way, you reimburse nothing unless the body finds manifest bad faith. Once your file is complete, ODS decides within 10 days whether the case is admissible and within 90 days on the merits, with an extension possible for highly complex disputes. Independent experts decide, and AGCOM certification requires the body to be impartial and independent of both Google and merchants. The decision is not binding: the Act says a certified body "shall not have the power to impose a binding settlement of the dispute on the parties", and Google states it is not bound by these decisions. Both sides take part in good faith, and Article 21 keeps your right to challenge Google's decision before a court at any stage.
Before opening a case about a suspended Google Merchant Center account or disapproved products, you need to have requested a review from Google first, because ODS steps in after the platform's internal complaint. You will need: the Merchant Center account ID and your store's website address, the name of the issue as shown in the Needs attention tab, the date of your review request and the outcome, Google's emails and screenshots. If the case is about individual products, add their links and product IDs. The ODS form also asks for your country of residence in the EU, a description of what happened, the Reference ID from the Merchant Center notification, the Google account email and your contact details. If you file on behalf of a company, attach a document showing that you represent it. Finally, you confirm that the information is true and that no other dispute settlement body is handling the same decision, and you confirm the request from the link we email you.
ADR Center: out-of-court dispute settlement body certified by AGCOM under Article 21 of the DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.
Last updated: 28 September 2026
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