Summary of changes to Google’s Terms of Service
for users in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom
We’re making changes to our Terms of Service on May 22, 2024 to make it easier for you to understand what we can expect from each other as you use Google services.
This page will help you understand the key updates we made to our terms for users based in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. We hope this summary is helpful, but we urge you to read the new terms in full.
Terms
What’s covered in these terms
This section provides a general overview of Google’s business, our relationship with you, the topics that these terms discuss, and why these terms are important.
- We added a sentence encouraging you to download the terms so you can look at them in the future. We also make the previous versions of our terms available online as well.
Your relationship with Google
This section gives you background information about Google and its business.
- We added the word “access” for consistency with the wording in other parts of these terms. This means that these terms apply whether you use our services, or just access them.
- For users based in France only: Based on French law requirements, we moved some of the details about how Google’s business works and how we earn money directly into the terms.
What you can expect from us
This section describes our approach to improving and changing our services.
- We added another example of a Google device, the Pixel.
- For users based in France only: Based on French law requirements, we clarified the situations in which we may change not only our digital content or services, but also our goods, as well as the notice we’ll provide.
What we expect from you
This section describes your responsibilities if you choose to use Google services.
- We added the word “access” for consistency with the wording in other parts of these terms. This means that these terms apply whether you use our services, or just access them.
- We added a link to our Transparency Center, which is a resource that you can use to learn about our product policies and to report violations.
- We clarified that, in addition to policies and help centers, we also provide instructions and warnings within our services.
- We revised the “rules of conduct” section by moving the “abuse, harm, interference, and disruption” bullet into a new section called “Don’t abuse our services”, where we provide more details about the kinds of abusive activities that we don’t allow.
Don’t abuse our services
We added this new, more detailed section because, unfortunately a small number of people have not been respecting our rules. We’re providing more examples and details about abuse and interference with our services that isn’t allowed.
Content in Google services
In this section, we describe the rights that each of us has in the content that’s in our services – including your content, Google content, and other content.
- In the “Your content” section, we added a new sentence explaining that we won’t claim ownership in original content generated by our services, including our generative AI services.
Software in Google services
This section describes software that you may find in our services, and explains the permissions given to you to use that software.
- We added the word “preloaded” because some of our software is preloaded onto devices and doesn’t need to be “downloaded”.
In case of problems and disagreements
For users based in France only: Legal guarantee
This section summarizes the guarantees provided to you by law.
- Instead of using our own wording in this section, based on French law requirements, we’re now displaying the exact language used in the French Consumer Code to describe the legal guarantees.
Liabilities
This section describes our liabilities in case of disputes. A liability is a loss from any type of legal claim.
For all users
- We re-wrote a sentence for clarity and deleted a sentence that was hard for some users to understand.
- We clarified that these terms don’t limit liability for “gross negligence”.
For business users and organizations only
- We clarified that the indemnity that business users and organizations give to Google will not apply to the extent a liability or expense is caused by Google's breach, negligence, or willful misconduct.
- We also clarified that the monetary cap on liability in this section doesn’t override the list of unlimited liabilities in the For all users section.
Taking action in case of problems
This section describes the reasons why we might remove your content from our services or stop your access to Google services.
- We revised the first paragraph for clarity.
- In the Suspending or terminating your access to Google services section, we clarified that suspension or termination aren’t our only remedies, and that we may have other legal rights that we can exercise.
EEA instructions on withdrawal
This section provides you with a copy of the European Union’s Model Instructions on Withdrawal.
- We deleted the reference to “May 28, 2022” because that date has already passed.
Key Terms
This section describes key words that appear in the terms.
- We updated the definition of “commercial guarantee” for clarity.
- For users based in France only: Based on French law requirements, we updated the definition of “legal guarantee” to include “hidden defects”.
Definitions
affiliate
An entity that belongs to the Google group of companies, which means Google LLC and its subsidiaries, including the following companies that provide consumer services in the EU: Google Ireland Limited, Google Commerce Limited, and Google Dialer Inc.
business user
An individual or entity who is not a consumer (see consumer).
commercial guarantee
A commercial guarantee is a voluntary commitment that is in addition to the legal guarantee of conformity. The company offering the commercial guarantee agrees to (a) provide certain services; or (b) repair, replace, or refund the consumer for defective items.
consumer
An individual who uses Google services for personal, non-commercial purposes outside of their trade, business, craft, or profession. This includes “consumers” as defined in Article 2.1 of the EU Consumer Rights Directive. (See business user)
copyright
A legal right that allows the creator of an original work (such as a blog post, photo, or video) to decide if and how that original work may be used by others, subject to certain limitations and exceptions.
country version
If you have a Google Account, we associate your account with a country (or territory) so that we can determine:
- the Google affiliate that provides the services to you and that processes your information as you use the services
- the version of the terms that govern our relationship
When you’re signed out, your country version is determined by the location where you’re using Google services. If you have an account, you can sign in and view these terms to see the country associated with it.
disclaimer
A statement that limits someone’s legal responsibilities.
EU Platform-to-Business Regulation
The Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services.
indemnify or indemnity
An individual or organization’s contractual obligation to compensate the losses suffered by another individual or organization from legal proceedings such as lawsuits.
intellectual property rights (IP rights)
Rights over the creations of a person’s mind, such as inventions (patent rights); literary and artistic works (copyright); designs (design rights); and symbols, names, and images used in commerce (trademarks). IP rights may belong to you, another individual, or an organization.
lack of conformity
A legal concept that defines the difference between how something should work and how it actually works. Under the law, how something should work is based on how the seller or trader describes it, whether its quality and performance are satisfactory, and its fitness for the usual purpose of such items.
legal guarantee
A legal guarantee is a requirement under the law that a seller or trader is liable if their digital content, services, or goods are defective (that is, that they lack conformity).
organization
A legal entity (such as a corporation, non-profit, or school) and not an individual person.
services
The Google services that are subject to these terms are the products and services listed at https://policies.google.com/terms/service-specific, including:
- apps and sites (like Search and Maps)
- platforms (like Google Shopping)
- integrated services (like Maps embedded in other companies’ apps or sites)
- devices and other goods (like Google Nest)
Many of these services also include content that you can stream or interact with.
trademark
Symbols, names, and images used in commerce that are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one individual or organization from those of another.
your content
Things that you create, upload, submit, store, send, receive, or share using our services, such as:
- Docs, Sheets, and Slides you create
- blog posts you upload through Blogger
- reviews you submit through Maps
- videos you store in Drive
- emails you send and receive through Gmail
- pictures you share with friends through Photos
- travel itineraries that you share with Google
