Google said starting in June 2023, the Google Merchant Center policy will stop disallowing the listing of COVID-19-related terms for Google Shopping Ads and free listings. This is an update to the Google Merchant Center Sensitive events policy.

Google wrote, “In June 2023, we will be removing restrictions on coronavirus (COVID-19) related content under our Sensitive events policy.” “Shopping ads and free listings that contain COVID-19 related terms will no longer be restricted, and approval via LegitScript or Project N95 will no longer be required,” Google added.

This includes Shopping ads and free listings for certain types of face masks, vaccines, and other COVID-19 related products.

I believe this was added to the policy back in July 2020, a few months after COVID-19 was declared public health emergency.

Google said, “content related to COVID-19 will continue to be subject to all other Shopping policies, prohibiting content that is harmful to users and the overall shopping ecosystem, including the Misrepresentation policy.”

You can see the full timeline of these Merchant Center policy changes over here.

Forum discussion at Twitter.