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Compliance reviews · Online shops

Website compliance reviews for online shops: Merchant Center and UK consumer law

A review checks your shop against Google's Shopping policies and the main UK consumer rules for selling online, from the product page to the confirmation email, and ends in a written report with a fix list in priority order.

WhatsApp Luke on 07473 266783or call 07438 284755

Two years stuck. Through in two weeks.

8Music, a Rayleigh music shop, had spent about two years trying to get through Google Merchant Center. Its account passed Google's review two weeks after we started, in October 2026. That review was against Google's rules, not the UK rules on this page. How 8Music got through

Luke Dykes runs every review, after six years in UK frontline public service, with the police, Border Force and HMRC, where records had to be accurate, complete and able to stand up to scrutiny.

Who it is for

This is for shops that sell to the public from their own website, whether it runs on Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace or something built for you, and want their products in Google's shopping results. The Merchant Center account might be stuck in review, products might keep being disapproved, or a misrepresentation flag might have appeared with no clear reason. Merchant Center does not judge a shop on its feed alone. It looks at who runs the business and how to reach it, what the delivery and returns pages say, and whether the prices and stock on the site match what Google was sent. Each unsuccessful review can mean a longer wait before you can ask again, so it pays to find everything before you ask Google to look.

It is also for shops that are not on Google Shopping, or are happy there, but want to know the site stands up to the UK rules on selling online before a relaunch or before ads send more people to it. Often the problem arrived with a theme, an app or a template rather than a decision anyone made: a final button that says 'Place order', shipping protection ticked by default, a countdown that restarts for every visitor, a returns page written for another country, an ad pixel that fires before the cookie banner is answered. The review finds those, says which rule each one touches and gives the fix in words you can paste.

What a review checks

  1. Who runs the shop
  2. Product data against the live page
  3. What customers see before they order
  4. Returns, cancellations and refunds
  5. Prices that include every compulsory charge
  6. The checkout
  7. Reviews, countdowns and 'was' prices
  8. Ad pixels, cookies and checkout privacy

  • Who runs the shop

    Google's Shopping policies expect a real, identifiable business behind the shop, and Google can suspend an account for misrepresentation without a warning. UK law has its own list: a business selling online must show its name, a geographic address and an email address, plus its VAT number if it is registered, and a limited company or LLP must show its registered name, number and office and the part of the UK it is registered in. We compare those details on the site and in order emails with Merchant Center, your Google Business Profile and Companies House, and check that an About page says who runs the shop.

    Source: Google's Shopping policies; Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002; Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015

    Applies to: Google's rules: any shop using Merchant Center. The legal ones: all of the UK, any size of business, with the company details for limited companies and LLPs.

  • Product data against the live page

    Google asks for the data you send it to match the product page and the checkout: the price in pounds including VAT, any sale price, stock and delivery cost. It asks for the manufacturer's GTIN and the brand where a product has one, the brand and MPN where it does not, and the condition of used or refurbished stock. Mismatches and invented barcodes can lead to disapproved products or limited performance. We sample products and compare the feed with each live page and the checkout, sale prices included. On 8Music, secondhand stock had been going to Google as new.

    Source: Google Merchant Center Help: price, product identifiers and condition

    Applies to: Any shop using Merchant Center. These are Google's rules, not law.

  • What customers see before they order

    Before a customer is bound by an order, the shop must tell them who it is and where, the main features of the goods, the total price including delivery, or how it will be worked out where it cannot be calculated in advance, how payment and delivery work and when the goods will arrive, the 14-day right to cancel with the model cancellation form, who pays return postage, when the right to cancel does not apply, and a reminder that the law requires goods to match the contract. The main features and the total must also be shown clearly, directly before the order is placed. We walk the journey from product page to confirmation email, with a test order only if you agree, and check that each item is there, that it can be found without logging in, and that the confirmation email carries the cancellation information.

    Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013; Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002

    Applies to: Every business selling to consumers online, all of the UK, any size, since June 2014.

  • Returns, cancellations and refunds

    A customer who buys online can cancel without giving a reason within 14 days after the day the goods arrive, then has 14 days to send them back. The refund, including standard outbound delivery, is due within 14 days of getting the goods back or proof they were sent, whichever comes first, and the customer pays return postage only if told so before ordering. Personalised and perishable goods, and hygiene-sealed goods unsealed after delivery, are among the narrow exceptions, and the shop must say before the order which goods they cover. Leave the cancellation information out and the period can run for up to 12 months longer. We read your returns page against each point and against your Merchant Center return settings, and flag wording such as 'store credit only' or a blanket 'no returns' that appears to conflict.

    Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013; Google Merchant Center Help: return policies

    Applies to: Every shop selling to consumers online, all of the UK, any size, since June 2014. The return settings are Google's, for shops using Merchant Center.

  • Prices that include every compulsory charge

    Since April 2025, wherever a product is shown with its price, on product and category pages, in ads and in the basket, that price must include every compulsory fee and tax that can be worked out in advance, and delivery charges must be made clear up front rather than first appearing at the payment step. The CMA's price transparency guidance, final since November 2025, explains the detail. In Great Britain the Price Marking Order also asks for prices that include VAT and, for some goods, a unit price, and those rules changed in April 2026. We compare the price at each step with the final total and check that delivery costs are shown or linked before checkout.

    Source: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024; CMA price transparency guidance (CMA209); Price Marking Order 2004

    Applies to: The price rules: every business selling to consumers, all of the UK, any size, since April 2025. The Price Marking Order: Great Britain only, as Northern Ireland has its own order.

  • The checkout

    The final button must make plain that pressing it means paying, using the regulations' phrase 'order with obligation to pay' or something as clear, such as 'Pay now'; if it does not, the customer is not bound by the order. Paid extras such as delivery protection or a donation must not be pre-ticked, consumers must not be charged a fee for paying by card or most electronic methods, and a phone line for existing orders must not be a premium-rate number. We run the checkout to the payment step, flag theme defaults such as 'Place order', and check Google's own checkout requirements: a secure connection, an ordinary way to pay and no business-only field, such as a VAT number, made compulsory.

    Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013; Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012; Google Merchant Center Help: checkout requirements

    Applies to: The legal rules: all of the UK, any size of shop, the surcharge ban since January 2018 and the rest since June 2014. Google's checkout requirements: any shop using Merchant Center.

  • Reviews, countdowns and 'was' prices

    Since April 2025 it has been banned to write, commission or incentivise fake reviews, to hide that a review was incentivised, or to present reviews in a misleading way, such as filtering out the low scores, and a shop that publishes reviews must take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove fake or misleading ones. Falsely claiming an offer is only available for a very limited time, to rush a decision, is banned too, and fake low-stock messages and misleading 'was' prices are unfair practices. We trace every review, star rating and badge to its source and today's figures, list each countdown, stock counter and 'was' price, and ask you what backs it. On 8Music, the Merchant Center work turned up a reviews badge showing a different count from the Google profile, so it was switched off.

    Source: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024; CMA fake reviews guidance (CMA208)

    Applies to: All of the UK, any size of business.

  • Ad pixels, cookies and checkout privacy

    Advertising and conversion-tracking tags, including the pixels shop apps add for Meta, Google Ads or TikTok, need a visitor's consent, and ICO guidance says they should wait for it and that refusing should be as easy as accepting. Since February 2026 a narrow exception covers analytics used only to improve the site, where visitors are told and given a simple way to object, and the ICO says it is still reviewing the consent rules for online advertising. When customers give their details at checkout or sign-up, they must be told who holds them and why, and marketing emails need their consent or the soft opt-in. Since June 2026 every business must also give people a way to complain to it about how their data is used. We list every tag set before and after consent and read the checkout and sign-up forms.

    Source: Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025; UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018; ICO guidance

    Applies to: All of the UK, any size of business.

What it does not cover

This is not legal advice, and I am not a solicitor. A review checks that the information your shop gives is present, consistent, findable and in line with published rules and guidance, and it comes with no certificate, badge or 'compliant' status. Whether a term is fair, whether a product falls within a cancellation exception or whether a refund deduction is justified are questions for a solicitor, and the report marks them for one. The review also leaves out the safety and marking of the goods themselves, such as UKCA or CE marking and toy, electrical or cosmetics safety, which are for a product safety specialist; regulated and age-restricted products such as food, supplements, alcohol, vapes and knives, which need a specialist; VAT and customs, which are for your accountant; and the EU's own rules for selling to customers there. It is not a data security, card payment security or full accessibility audit, and it does not cover Amazon, eBay, Etsy, TikTok Shop or ad platforms other than Merchant Center, each of which has its own rules. Google's identity and business verification has to be done by you, and only Google decides on your account.

Work in this sector

We reviewed 8Music's Wix store, which we did not build, and its Merchant Center account against Google's requirements, and made the fixes inside both. That review was against Google's rules, not the UK consumer rules on this page.

Fair questions

What changed for 8Music after two years of trying?
We did not build 8Music's Wix store; we reviewed it. The audit fetched 307 pages and read the structured data on 199 product pages, and the fixes went in priority order. The catalogue went from two Merchant Center data sources to one, the account's business information now carries the shop's name, customer service page, email and phone, and the account is linked to the shop's Google Business Profile, the delivery and returns settings were matched to the published policy, and every product Merchant Center held was checked against the website on price, stock, brand and title. The About and Contact pages now say who runs the shop and where it is. Its account passed Google's review in October 2026, two weeks after we started. Google made that decision, and nobody outside Google can promise it for your shop.
Our returns page says no refunds on sale items. Is that a problem?
For goods bought online, the 14-day right to cancel does not depend on whether the item was on sale, and sale goods are not among the exceptions the Consumer Contracts Regulations list, which cover things such as personalised or perishable goods. So a review flags 'no refunds on sale items', 'store credit only' and '7 days to return' as wording that appears to conflict with the cancellation right. Faulty goods are covered separately, by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Whether a particular term can be relied on is a question for a solicitor, and the report says where one is needed.
Our product pages say 'delivery calculated at checkout'. Is that enough?
Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, whose consumer rules have applied since April 2025, delivery charges have to be made clear before the payment step: either the charges themselves or, where they cannot be worked out in advance, the fact that they will be added. A review checks that a delivery page with costs, areas you do not serve and delivery times is linked from product pages and the basket, and that it agrees with what the checkout charges and what Merchant Center has been told. Where no delivery time is agreed, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets the default: delivery without undue delay and within 30 days of the contract being made, and a time you promise on the site becomes the agreed time.
Do I have to put my address on the shop?
The Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 ask every business selling online for a geographic address, and Google's guidance expects the address on the site to match the Merchant Center account without hiding where the business is, so a virtual office shown as the shop's base is a common problem. Whether a particular address meets the rules, such as a home address or a registered office at your accountant's, is a legal judgement. The report marks it for a legal view rather than telling you what to publish.
Do I need consent for the Meta pixel and Google Analytics?
For the Meta pixel and other advertising or conversion tags, yes: they need consent, and ICO guidance says they should wait for it. Analytics is less simple. Since February 2026 a narrow exception covers analytics used only to improve the site, where visitors are told and given a simple way to object, but whether your setup fits it depends on how it is configured and whether its data feeds advertising, and that is a legal judgement. The review lists every tag, when it loads and what it is for, and marks anything borderline for a legal view.
We ship to Northern Ireland. Does anything change?
For product listings, yes. Since 13 December 2024, consumer products sold to customers in Northern Ireland have come under the EU's General Product Safety Regulation, which asks online offers to show the manufacturer's name and postal and electronic address, a responsible person based in the EU or Northern Ireland where the manufacturer is outside both, information identifying the product including a picture, and any warnings or safety information. Sales only into England, Scotland and Wales do not carry that listing rule, and Northern Ireland also has its own Price Marking Order. A review can check your listings for those details; who should act as the responsible person is a question for a legal or product safety adviser.

Tell me what you need. You will get a straight answer and a firm price in writing.

WhatsApp Luke on 07473 266783

Or call 07438 284755 or email luke@owntimestudios.com.