Business Profile policy adds misuse of support rule

Google added a new section named “Misuse of support channels” to its Business Profile third-party policies page. Search Engine Roundtable reported it on 29 September 2026. We re-read the live page and compared it with an archived copy.

What does the new section say?#

Google says it requires “all Google Business Profile users to use the support paths responsibly”, and describes the channels as provided in good faith to resolve legitimate business and technical issues. To avoid delays for everyone, it asks users not to misuse the portal or flood it with invalid requests.

It lists two examples of repeated submissions of unfounded support complaints:

• False or misleading reports.
• Reports made in bad faith.

A tip closes the section: repeated unfounded submissions can result in rejection of all further complaints without assessment.

What actually changed on the page?#

We compared the live page with the Internet Archive copy of 10 March 2026. The only substantive change is this new section. The rest of the page, including the sections on harassing or untrustworthy behavior and on auto-reverting of Google updates, is unchanged in substance.

The archive copy is from March, so the section could have been added at any point since. Google has not said when.

Who does the rule apply to?#

The page is titled “third-party policies” and is written for agencies and other partners who manage profiles for businesses. The new section is placed among those rules, yet its text speaks to all Google Business Profile users, not only third parties.

That mismatch is the detail to watch. A reading limited to agencies would be narrower than the words on the page, and Google has not published any clarification.

What should local SEO teams do?#

Treat the report and appeal forms as a limited resource. Before you file a complaint about a competitor’s listing, a review or a suspension, check that you can support it. Submitting the same unfounded complaint again is exactly what the page now describes as grounds for rejection without review.

What the page does not say matters too. It gives no number of submissions that counts as repeated and no description of how a rejected complaint can be challenged.

Teams that rely on dashboards and bulk tools should also keep a log of what was reported and why. Business Profile keeps changing, as the hours test shows, so read the policy page again before each audit.