Google Merchant Center June 2026 update: terms, emails and what to check
Three things to do. Read the Merchant Center terms published for your registered business country, rather than a generic summary. Check the marketing content setting in your account and decide, deliberately, whether it stays on. And keep the terms separate from product data policy: your feed and product page requirements are ongoing operational work, not something the June update created. This is guidance for where accounts stand now, after June, not a countdown to a deadline.
What the terms actually say
Google publishes Merchant Center terms per country from its country terms hub. The current United Kingdom document is reached through the GB "latest" link. Reading it directly, three sections matter to most ecommerce teams.
- Section 1 covers submission of content according to Google's instructions and specifications.
- Section 3(b) refers to controller-to-controller terms, or a Data Processing Addendum, to the extent applicable.
- Section 4(b) deals explicitly with marketing email: access, indexing, caching and crawling, with collected material treated as Content under the terms.
These sections describe current contractual provisions; they do not, by themselves, establish launch dates or requirements for future products. Questions about how the terms apply to your business belong with your contracts or data-protection owner.
Dates and acceptance: a clarification
Correction, 10 September 2026. An earlier version stated a universal 15 June 2026 deadline. The UK terms document we checked is marked last modified 1 June 2026; that label does not establish a universal effective date. Check the terms for your registered business country and any notice in your own account.
The marketing content setting
Google's help page, How marketing content is used, describes a permission that applies when the setting is enabled. Google receives marketing email either by subscribing through a merchant's public newsletter sign-up form, or through the allowlist address [email protected]. Personal and order-related email is described as excluded. Where email content and feed data disagree, feed data takes precedence. To turn it off: Settings, General, Marketing content usage, "Do not share data", Save. Google says this unsubscribes it from your marketing list and deletes collected emails, and that content already displayed may appear temporarily before removal. There is no dedicated reporting for email usage.
Three separate things people are merging
| Area | What it is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant Center terms | The contractual terms for your registered business country, covering submission, data handling and marketing email access. | Read the version for your country and route it to whoever owns contracts or data protection. |
| Marketing content setting | An account setting that lets Google collect marketing emails and use content from them on Google surfaces. | Make a deliberate on or off decision with the marketing owner, and record it. |
| Product data policy | The separate, ongoing requirements your feed and product pages must meet: price, availability, shipping, returns, identity checks. | Keep to your normal operational cadence. This is not a new June obligation. |
Our view on the decision
This part is JudeLuxe judgement rather than documented fact. Sit down with whoever owns marketing and look at the promotional content you actually send, the approval requirements that apply where it could be used, and whether anyone has the capacity to monitor it. Stay enabled only where that distribution genuinely fits how your approved content is meant to be used. If it does not, or if nobody has reviewed it, opt out and revisit the decision deliberately later rather than leaving it to drift. We are not saying every brand should switch it off.
Ongoing feed checks, not new June obligations
These checks are worth running regardless. They are ordinary operational hygiene, and none of them are obligations created by the June terms update.
- Price, availability and checkout state consistent between feed, product page and basket.
- Shipping and returns information accurate in the feed and on the site.
- Merchant Center account diagnostics reviewed, and only the verification requests that actually apply to your markets acted on.
If you want the detail behind these, our product feed work and Google Shopping management pages cover how we handle them on retained accounts.
Checklist: owner, action, evidence
| Action | Owner | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Read the terms for your registered business country | Account owner, plus legal or data protection where relevant | Link to the country document and the date shown on it, saved with the review date |
| Decide on the marketing content setting | Marketing owner with the paid media lead | Screenshot of the setting and a short written rationale |
| Review the last quarter of marketing sends | Marketing owner | A sample of sends someone has actually read, with a yes or no on public distribution |
| Check price, availability and checkout match between feed and product page | Ecommerce or feed owner | Spot-check list of SKUs with any mismatches logged |
| Check shipping and returns disclosures are accurate | Ecommerce owner | Dated review of the policy pages and the values sent in the feed |
| Work through Merchant Center diagnostics and any verification request that applies to you | Paid media lead | Diagnostics export with items closed or triaged |
Frequently asked questions
What changed in the Merchant Center terms in June 2026, and which date applies?
An earlier version stated a universal 15 June 2026 deadline. The UK terms document we checked is marked last modified 1 June 2026; that label does not establish a universal effective date. Check the terms for your registered business country and any notice in your own account.
How do I turn off marketing content usage in Merchant Center?
See the marketing content section above for the exact opt-out steps in Merchant Center settings.
Does Google read customers' personal or order emails?
Google describes the feature as covering marketing email only, with personal and order-related emails excluded. See the marketing content section above for the detail.
Does a terms notice mean my account is at risk of suspension?
No. A terms notice is not an enforcement action. If you are worried about account status, look at the actual issues reported in your Merchant Center diagnostics and any policy notifications on the account, and resolve those on their own merits.
Will opting out change my Shopping or Performance Max traffic?
There is no guaranteed change either way, and Google provides no dedicated reporting for marketing email usage. Treat the decision as a content-distribution and brand-governance question rather than a bidding lever.
Can the decision be changed later?
Yes. The marketing content usage setting can be switched at any time in Merchant Center settings.
Sources
- Merchant Center Terms of Service, country hub
- United Kingdom terms, latest version
- How marketing content is used
Discuss your Merchant Center and feed issues
A 30-minute conversation about what you are seeing in the account and what is worth doing next. It is a discussion, not a full diagnostic.
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