Google is updating the Google Ads Misrepresentation policy concerning Dishonest Pricing Practices. This will require advertisers to disclose the payment model or full expense that a user will incur before and after purchase, and clarify any false or misleading impressions of the cost of a product or service.
Google wrote, they "will begin enforcing the policy update on October 28, 2025, with full enforcement ramping up over approximately 4 weeks."
What is new? Google said:
(1) Advertisers must clearly and conspicuously disclose the payment model or full expense that a user will bear before and after purchase.
(2) Pricing practices that create a false or misleading impression of the cost of a product or service, leading to inflated or unexpected charges are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Bait-and-switch tactics: Deceptively advertising a product or service at an enticing, often unrealistic, low price to lure customers, with no genuine intent to sell it, only to pressure them into buying a different, typically more expensive or inferior, alternative once they’re engaged.
- Price Exploitation: Exploiting individuals in vulnerable situations or under duress, leveraging their immediate need or lack of reasonable alternatives to demand a payment significantly higher than the prevailing market rate. For example, a locksmith threatening to leave the customer unless a cost above what was quoted is paid on the spot
- Promoting apps as free when a user must pay to install the app
- Promoting a free trial without clearly stating the trial period or that the user will be automatically charged at the end of the trial
Violations of this policy will not lead to immediate account suspension without prior warning. A warning will be issued, at least 7 days, prior to any suspension of your account.
Google said you should review this policy update to determine whether or not any of your ads fall in scope of the policy, and if so, remove those ads before October 28, 2025.
This is a minor update to the existing policy around dishonest pricing practices (https://t.co/xiXl3fVmg4) to reflect that it applies to both misleading pricing before and after the purchase. As the email states, if violations are detected, advertisers will be given a warning…
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) September 23, 2025
Hi Adam, This is a minor update to the existing policy around dishonest pricing practices (https://t.co/xiXl3fUOqw) to reflect that it applies to both misleading pricing before and after the purchase.
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) September 23, 2025
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