Terms and conditions: what Merchant Center expects

Missing terms and conditions are on Google’s list of omitted information in the Misrepresentation policy. Publish terms that describe your actual sale. Link them from every page and from checkout, name the business, and point to the returns, shipping and payment pages rather than contradicting them. Copying another shop’s terms is the classic mistake here.

Major4 min read

By Edvinas Ivanauskas How the guides are reviewed

Why this matters

The Misrepresentation policy has a section called “Omission of relevant information”. One of the failures it names is not disclosing “all related conditions before and after purchase”, and its first example is “Missing merchant terms and conditions or shipping information”. Google's “Follow Merchant Center guidelines” page repeats it as a website requirement: your site “must clearly and conspicuously disclose all related conditions before and after purchase”.

Terms are where those conditions live when they fit nowhere else: who the seller is, when an order is accepted, what happens if an item is out of stock or wrongly priced, cancellations, payment, and how to raise a problem. They also have to agree with the returns, shipping and payment pages. A terms page that promises 14-day returns while the returns page says 30 days leaves a shopper unable to tell which one applies.

Product Experts on Google's Merchant Center Community list terms of service among the policies every store needs, and say each one “must accurately describe how the business actually operates”. Their plain-language guide also warns against copying policy statements from other websites. What local law adds is for your adviser; this guide covers what Google asks for.

The free scan flags a store with no terms of service page it can reach, in the same pass as every other policy. The other policy pages follow the same pattern; start with the privacy policy. See every policy check on the misrepresentation checker.

Typical evidence

Boilerplate you never read is still your policy

You need a terms page that opens without hoops and is actually about your business. StoreVerifier can surface unfinished placeholders and public wording that needs review; it cannot establish who wrote a policy or whether it is legally sufficient.

Your TOS page

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Default Shopify template

Similarity to stock template0%

Unchanged template → no business name, no jurisdiction, flagged

Customised terms — your legal name, clauses that match what you sell, the right governing law — drop that bar to a sliver and pass.

The public signals this check looks for:

There is no terms page, or it is linked only from a page shoppers never reach
There is no terms page, or it is linked only from a page shoppers never reach.
The terms were copied from another store and still name that store, its country or its pro…
The terms were copied from another store and still name that store, its country or its products.
The terms contradict the returns or shipping page…
The terms contradict the returns or shipping page: a different return window, different delivery times, a different refund method.
You sell subscriptions, pre-orders or made-to-order items and the terms say nothing about …
You sell subscriptions, pre-orders or made-to-order items and the terms say nothing about how they work.
The terms link returns a 404 after a redesign or a change of page address
The terms link returns a 404 after a redesign or a change of page address.

What it looks like once it is right

The terms open with “These terms apply to orders from Acme Goods Ltd, 4 Mill Lane, Leeds”, explain when an order is accepted and what happens if an item is out of stock, link to the returns and shipping pages for the details, and are dated.

Common mistakes

Common mistake

The terms were copied from a US electronics store. They name that store, refer to “our warehouse in Ohio”, and promise 14-day returns while this store's returns page offers 30 days.

Fix checklist

Publish the terms at a stable address and link them from the footer of every page and from checkout.
Name the seller at the top: the business name and address shoppers are buying from, and how to contact it.
Describe your real sale: when an order is accepted, what happens if an item turns out to be out of stock or wrongly priced, how cancellations work, which payment methods you take and when payment is taken.
Cover the parts of your model a shopper could not guess: pre-orders and when they ship, made-to-order lead times, subscriptions and how to cancel them, age restrictions.
For returns, shipping and payment details, link to those pages rather than restating them. Where you do restate a number, make sure it matches.
Remove anything that came from another business: its name, its products, its country, clauses for services you do not offer. For what the law in your markets requires, ask a qualified adviser.
Date the terms, and re-read them whenever the returns, shipping or payment pages change.

Make the template unmistakably yours

Swap the stock lines for real ones — name, jurisdiction, products — and the match disappears.

−“These Terms govern your use of [WEBSITE].”

+“These Terms govern purchases from Acme Retail Ltd.”

−“Governed by the laws of [JURISDICTION].”

+“Governed by the law of England and Wales.”

Questions merchants ask

Does Google Merchant Center require terms and conditions?

Google's Misrepresentation policy lists “Missing merchant terms and conditions or shipping information” as an omission of relevant information, and the Merchant Center guidelines ask sites to disclose all related conditions before and after purchase. StoreVerifier's free scan reports a missing terms page as a failure. Treat it as required.

What should terms and conditions cover for an online store?

Who the seller is, when an order is accepted, what happens with out-of-stock or wrongly priced items, cancellations, payment, and any part of your model a shopper could not guess, such as pre-orders or subscriptions. Link the returns, shipping and payment pages rather than contradicting them. For legal requirements in your markets, ask a qualified adviser.

Is it a problem if my terms and my returns page disagree?

Yes. A shopper who reads both cannot tell which one applies, which is the kind of unclear condition the Misrepresentation policy describes. Google's returns fix page asks for the return policy to be consistent throughout the site. Pick one version, then make every page that mentions it say the same thing.

Remediation

Risk signal

Terms are the page a shopper reads when something has gone wrong, which is why a copied or contradictory one does so much damage. Write them for your own sale, keep them in step with the other policies, and link them from checkout.

PriorityAddress and document this finding as part of the store’s remediation work.

EvidenceRecord the current state before each change, apply the fix, then capture the corrected state so every change is evidenced.

Similar cases

Sources

Community guidance

Written by Product Experts, the users Google recognises for their answers on its Merchant Center Community forum. Often stricter than Google’s help pages, and not Google policy.

Last reviewed 23 Sep 2026.

That is one issue. The library documents 134.

The free scan lists what it finds on your store. The paid report adds the affected pages, captured evidence and step-by-step fixes. Start free, with no account needed.