Why PrestaShop Stores Get Suspended in Google Merchant Center (And How to Fix It)

If your PrestaShop store just got suspended in Google Merchant Center, you are not alone. PrestaShop installations come with a few default settings that create compliance problems most merchants do not catch until the suspension email arrives.

The Tax Display Trap

The most common PrestaShop-specific cause is a price mismatch caused by VAT settings. PrestaShop lets you display prices excluding VAT in the product feed while the website shows prices including VAT. The Shopping ad shows a price 20% lower than what the customer pays at checkout. Google treats this as misrepresentation.

Fix: confirm the price your Google module exports matches the price shown on your product pages. For EU B2C merchants, your feed price must include VAT if your site shows VAT-inclusive prices.

Empty Policy Pages

PrestaShop comes with CMS pages for terms, legal notices, and privacy policy. By default these contain placeholders. Google's AI verification layer reads these pages and flags them as inadequate.

Your shipping policy, return policy, and privacy policy must each contain specific content: countries shipped to, methods, delivery windows, return period, refund process, data handling. Not placeholder text.

Guest Checkout Disabled

Some PrestaShop owners disable guest checkout to force account creation. Google treats login-required checkouts as checkout barriers and flags them as website quality violations.

Before You Appeal

Run a full audit of all 43+ policy areas before submitting a reinstatement request. The suspension notice names a violation category, not every issue Google found. Fix everything before you appeal.

I put together a full PrestaShop-specific fix guide at gmcsuspension.com/google-merchant-center-prestashop-suspended.html covering the tax settings, policy page requirements, checkout configuration, and the pre-appeal checklist for PrestaShop stores.