Google Shopping Blocking All Vitamins and Natural Products - Glitch or Deliberate Censorship?

[AduroLabs]

Hi everyone.

We have a client that manufactures and supplies dietary supplements all around the world. We are slightly concerned that a recent Google shopping glitch (or change) is now seemingly excluding products from the shopping search results.

This currently appears only to be happening in the US but we are really concerned, as our client ships all over the world and the potential loss of revenue could be quite large.

There is already a YouTube video that demonstrates what is going on which is available below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNDyS0tF4dY

Just to clarify, these are products that should not be included in any of Google's “sensitive” categories as they currently stand.

Taking Vitamin B12 as an example, it is recognised as a permissible dietary supplement within pretty much every regulatory framework around the world, including those governed by the US FDA, The Euopean Commission and the Australian TGA. Therefore there would be no legal reasons to prevent it's inclusion in shopping results in any country.

Has this just slipped under the radar or can anyone point us to a resource that may be able to clarify why this has happened?

Thanks in advance guys!

[KevinBudzynski]

Not sure this was a glitch, sounds intentional (imho):

A vitamin vender who claims to have been able to reach a Google AdWords Specialist says he was told to contact Google's legal department at legal@google.com for more information. This department could not immediately be reached for comment about the Google Shopping anomaly, but the vender believes the issue stems from the European Union (EU)'s recent ban on vitamins and herbs, and Google's attempt to thwart potential trade sanctions...