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Something of a sticky one, because Juhn Mueller said: “We don’t have a duplicate content penalty. It’s not that we would demote a site for having a lot of duplicate content. So to answer your question: I was wondering if there are actually any penalties for this No - there isn't one. This doesn't mean that duplication is not going to result in a penalty for another reason though. Too much duplication may result in a page quality issue that triggers a different penalty. Too much is also not good for a user experience, but that all depends on where / what content is duplicated. Have a read of this article over at Hoboweb as there is a ton of great information there. -Andy

Thanks for all your responses Linda and Dirk! The pages are not live on the first website so there will be no possibility of any redirects. Although i'm reassured now that we can transfer the descriptions over without being penalised. Thank you again!