Yes, it can be illegal to claim someone’s business on Google if you aren’t the owner or an authorized representative. The act can violate the Federal Trade Commission’s Business Impersonation Rule, expose you to a private lawsuit under the Lanham Act, and trigger Google’s own suspension process. Penalties under the FTC rule exceed $53,000 per violation, and a Lanham Act judgment can reach up to three times the real owner’s actual damages plus the impersonator’s profits.
Who Is Actually Allowed to Claim a Profile
Google limits Business Profile claims to the owner or someone the owner has authorized in writing. Employees acting for the owner and marketing agencies the owner has hired are fine. A competitor, a former employee, or anyone else without permission is not.1Google. Business Eligibility and Ownership Guidelines – Section: Ownership
The consent requirement is stricter than people assume. Verbal permission doesn’t count. If a dispute later comes up between a business and the agency managing its listing, the agency must be able to produce written or digital proof that the owner authorized the claim. A checked box on a form is enough, but something provable has to exist.2Google Business Profile Help. Business Profile Third-Party Policies
Everything below assumes the person claiming the profile has no such authorization. That is the scenario the law treats as impersonation.
The FTC’s Business Impersonation Rule
The Federal Trade Commission’s Government and Business Impersonation Rule, codified at 16 CFR Part 461, makes it illegal to falsely pose as a business or to misrepresent an affiliation with a business in commerce.3Federal Trade Commission. Trade Regulation Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses Taking control of someone else’s Google Business Profile and then shaping how that business appears to customers fits inside this prohibition. The person doing it is holding themselves out as the business.
The civil penalties the FTC can seek in federal court exceed $53,000 per violation, and the agency can also pursue refunds for consumers who were harmed.4Federal Trade Commission. FTC Highlights Actions to Protect Consumers From Impersonation Scams Because the penalty is calculated per violation, someone who alters a hijacked profile’s phone number, hours, and website could face a separate penalty for each change. The dollar figure adjusts annually for inflation.
The Lanham Act and the Owner’s Right to Sue
The FTC rule is the government’s tool. The Lanham Act gives the real business owner a private one. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), anyone who uses a false designation of origin or a misleading representation likely to cause confusion about who is affiliated with a business is liable to the person damaged by it.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – Section 1125 Claiming another company’s profile and presenting yourself as that company easily meets the “likely to cause confusion” standard. Customers calling the number on Google think they’re reaching the real business.
Available damages are significant. A court can award the defendant’s profits from the impersonation, the plaintiff’s actual damages (including lost revenue from misdirected customers or the effect of fake reviews), the costs of the lawsuit, and in exceptional cases, reasonable attorney fees. Courts can also increase the award up to three times the amount of actual damages.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – Section 1117
What Google Does on Its Own
Google enforces separately from the courts. When Business Profile policies are violated, Google will restrict the content from displaying or restrict access to the profile or the merchant account entirely.7Google. All Business Profile Policies and Guidelines In practice the fraudulent profile gets suspended, and in serious cases the whole Google account tied to it can be affected. A suspended profile disappears from Google Search and Maps until the issue is resolved.
Google tends to act in days or weeks rather than the months a lawsuit takes, which is why most owners should start there before anywhere else.
What to Do If Someone Claimed Your Business
If you found this article because your profile is already in someone else’s hands, you have two paths. Start with Google’s internal process. If that stalls or the damage is serious, move to legal action.
Request Ownership Through Google
Go to business.google.com/add, enter your business name and address, and select the listing. Google will tell you someone else manages the profile and offer a form to request access. Submit it.8Google. Request Ownership of a Business Profile
The current claimant has three days to respond. If they approve, you get the profile right away. If they deny, you can appeal. If they ignore the request entirely, Google may let you claim the profile yourself by going through verification.8Google. Request Ownership of a Business Profile Someone who grabbed your profile but isn’t watching the email tied to it can lose control inside a week.
Report Fraudulent Activity
If the ownership request doesn’t work, file a complaint through Google’s Business Redressal Form. It’s built for reporting misleading business names, phone numbers, or URLs that suggest fraud.9Google Help. Report a Business on Google Maps Pull your documentation together before you file: business licenses, tax filings, utility bills in the business name, and photos of your storefront and signage. The more proof you can show that you’re the real operator, the faster Google tends to act.
When to Involve a Lawyer
If Google’s internal process stalls or the unauthorized claim has already caused measurable harm (lost customers, fake reviews, misdirected calls), legal action starts to make sense. A cease-and-desist letter from an attorney often resolves things without a filing, because the impersonator now sees the Lanham Act and FTC exposure stacked against them. If the letter is ignored, a federal suit under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a) opens up the full set of remedies, including the other side’s profits and up to treble damages.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – Section 1117
A Note on Marketing Agencies
Agencies and SEO firms manage Business Profiles for clients legitimately all the time, but one practice crosses the line: an agency cannot preemptively claim a business’s profile and then approach the owner offering to “manage” it for a fee.2Google Business Profile Help. Business Profile Third-Party Policies That tactic violates Google’s third-party policies and can trigger the same FTC impersonation rule that applies to any other unauthorized claimant. Legitimate agencies leave ownership with the business, disclose fees in writing (Google Business Profile is itself free), and return full control within seven business days when a client ends the relationship. If an agency currently holding your profile hasn’t done any of that, you have grounds to take it back.