Impact to your Microsoft Advertising account

At all times during your use of the Microsoft Advertising services, you must comply with the Microsoft Advertising policies and the applicable laws and regulations in each of the markets where your ads serve. These policies ensure the safety and security of our services. We employ a combination of human and automated review processes to enforce our policies. When you or your ad content violates Microsoft Advertising policies, we may apply one or more of our three enforcement impact types: Ad and ad component level disapprovals, Repeated Violation (Three Strikes), or Immediate Suspension.

Ad and ad component disapproval

Ads and ad components are the individual attributes which combined determine what your ad will look like and when your ad will be served. This includes all ad text, images, extensions, product feeds and product components, landing pages, URLs, keywords, and targeting settings.

When we determine that an ad or ad component may violate policy, we will disapprove the applicable ad or ad component, and the associated disapproval message will state the policy that you might have violated, and how to redress the violation through our appeal process.

In some instances, violations of our policy put our users and platform at risk. Any ad or ad component which violates the policy categories outlined in the Repeated Violations policy below will be subject to more stringent enforcement penalties as determined by the level of risk at the time of detection. If an ad or ad component is in violation of any policy which warrants immediate suspension, that action will be taken immediately upon detection without consideration for any other disapproval or Strike penalty.

All stores, and all products within the stores, uploaded into Microsoft Merchant Center must comply with the Microsoft Advertising policies, including the Product Ads policies. You can create only one store per top level domain.

• Product disapprovals

• We will review each product upon upload in the Microsoft Merchant Center product feed. If a product is ineligible to serve because it does not comply with our policies, we will display that product in the Microsoft Merchant Center dashboard within the Microsoft Advertising UI. We will not consider Microsoft Merchant Center product disapprovals when applying the Repeated Violations policy.

• Store disapprovals

• We will disapprove your store when it violates the Microsoft Advertising policies. We will notify you of the reason for the disapproval via email and within the Microsoft Merchant Center dashboard. While the store is disapproved, none of the products within the store will be eligible to serve.
• Any store which violates the policy categories outlined in the Repeated Violations below, which includes Product Ad policies, will be subject to more stringent enforcement penalties as determined by the level of risk at the time of detection. If a store is in violation of any policy which warrants immediate suspension, that action will be taken immediately upon detection without consideration for any other disapproval or strike penalty.

If you violate any policies within the categories below which pose a heightened risk to our users or our platform within any ad, ad component, or product you will have “three strikes” before we suspend your use of Microsoft Advertising services, in our discretion. If you are under a strike penalty, as defined below, you will not be able to login to your account through Editor or the Mobile App, but you may access your advertiser account(s) through the Web UI. We determine strike penalties based upon violation of any of the following policy categories (i.e., a group of individual policies which relate to the same type of violation), or any other violations that may pose a risk to the safety or security of our services, customers, or consumers.

• Ad Requirements
• Disallowed Content
• Extensions
• Intellectual Property
• Legal and Privacy
• Media Formats
• Product Ads
• Relevance and Quality
• Restricted Content
• Text Guidelines

Strike One

Upon Strike One penalty, we will suspend all ads, including any associated ad components, within the impacted advertiser account. If you have multiple accounts which violate policy, we may apply Strike One to each account independently. We will attempt to notify you with the details of the violation and the impacted account(s) with instructions on how to redress the violation.

Strike Two

We may issue a Strike Two penalty as follows:

1. After you successfully redressed a Strike One penalty, you violate the same policy category on the same account within one year from the date of rehabilitation of the violation that triggered a Strike One penalty, or
2. You violate the same policy category as another of your accounts currently under a Strike One suspension.

Upon Strike Two penalty, we will suspend all ads and ad components within the impacted advertiser account, and we will prevent the Manager Account from creating new accounts under the same Manager Account for the duration of the penalty. The advertiser will receive an email with the details of the policy category, the account(s), and Manager Account impacted.

Strike Three

We may issue a Strike Three penalty as follows:

1. After you successfully redressed a Strike Two penalty, you violate the same policy category within one year from the date of rehabilitation of the violation that triggered a Strike One penalty, or
2. You violate the same policy category as another of your accounts currently under a Strike Two suspension.

When we issue a Strike Three penalty, all your ad accounts will be suspended immediately and without further warning. All content contained within the Manager Account will become read-only. You will be able to log in and access your account information, but you will not be able to edit, add, modify, or delete any content contained therein. We will notify you with the details of the policy category, the account(s), and Manager Account impacted, with instructions to redress.

Microsoft Advertising is committed to a safe online environment. Egregious violations of our terms or policies may warrant the immediate suspension of your advertiser account. We consider egregious those violations that pose an immediate threat to user safety or security, the security of the services provided by Microsoft or its partners, or illegal content. These violations often indicate intent to use our service in a fraudulent, harmful, or illegal manner. Continued access to our services after we detect such nefarious behaviors could cause significant damage to users or the service itself. If we detect an egregious violation, we will suspend your access to the service, including access to all information contained therein, immediately and without prior warning. We will notify you of the reason for the suspension with information on how to appeal the decision or address the concern. You will not be able to use Microsoft Advertising services until you redress the violation to our satisfaction.

Egregious violations include, without limitations:

• Obfuscation of advertiser or payer identity, to include providing inaccurate identity information or documentation.
• Use of the service to facilitate or promote illegal practices, content, products and services.
• Malicious software codes (e.g., malware, phishing, scareware, ransomware, pirated software).
• Counterfeit, malicious, or disingenuous content or services, or any other content which poses a threat to the security of our users or our service.
• Any landing page or downloadable content which removes user control.
• Ad content which obfuscates the intention or functionality of any downloaded product or provided service.
• Circumventing or evading system service safeguards or monitoring.
• Any content or action designed to facilitate gaining unauthorized access to any user, advertiser, or data, or manipulate the Microsoft Advertising service.
• Deceptive or obfuscated content, cloaking, or spoofing.
• Impersonation, manipulation or deceptive media, or deceptive use of name or brand to imply endorsement.
• Excessive collection of personal information unnecessary to fulfill the ad promise.
• Emotionally manipulative or coercive content.
• Offensive, obscene, defamatory, or threatening content, or any content intended to degrade, intimidate or incite violence.
• Attempting to circumvent our account suspension or other measures intended to enforce our policies or terms by creating a new advertiser account or Manager Account.

You may appeal disapproved ads or components, any strike, or an immediate suspension by contacting support within six months of the disapproval or suspension decision. If you redress the violation, we will lift all applicable penalties from your account.