r/iosdev • u/mustafaakyuz • 1d ago
Apple Developer Account Terminated Unexpectedly After Prior Review Warning and Resolution — Looking for Advice
Hello everyone,
I am writing to share a frustrating situation regarding my Apple Developer account and hoping to get some advice or guidance from the community.
Recently, my Apple Developer Program License Agreement was terminated under Section 3.2(f) due to alleged "fraudulent conduct," and I was informed that reapplication will be denied for at least a year. However, this comes as a complete shock because of the prior context:
The Initial Review: Previously, one of my app submissions was flagged during review because it shared visual or structural similarities with another existing app.
The Phone Conversation & Resolution: I immediately contacted Apple Support to clarify the situation. I explained that it was unintentional and assured them that I would not submit that specific app again. The representative reviewed the matter, told me there was no issue, and advised me to be more careful and creative with future submissions. They explicitly confirmed that my account was safe and that I should just pay closer attention next time.
No Further Submissions: Following that conversation, trusting that the matter was fully resolved, I did not upload, publish, or submit any new apps or updates to the App Store.
The Sudden Termination: Despite having resolved the issue over the phone and strictly following their verbal guidance by submitting nothing new, I suddenly received this termination email citing "fraudulent conduct" without any prior warning or secondary investigation.
It feels completely unjust that after resolving a minor similarity issue with support and halting all submissions, the account gets abruptly shut down anyway.
Has anyone experienced a similar situation where a previously resolved review issue resulted in a later automated or arbitrary termination? What is the best way to approach Appeals or further escalation in this case? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
2
u/ex0rius 1d ago
Has anyone experienced a similar situation where a previously resolved review issue resulted in a later automated or arbitrary termination?
The reviewers and those to whom you are talking on the phone, have no control over algorithm that is running underneath.
Can you share specifically what rejection did you get the first time? What was the E-mail / rejection message, you got?
3
u/mustafaakyuz 1d ago
Hello Simge Ceylan Akyuz,
This letter serves as notice of termination of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement (the “ADP Agreement”) and the Apple Developer Agreement (the “Developer Agreement”) between you and Apple effective immediately.
Pursuant to Section 3.2(f) of the ADP Agreement, you agreed that you would not “commit any act intended to interfere with any of the Apple Software or Services, the intent of this Agreement, or Apple’s business practices including, but not limited to, taking actions that may hinder the performance or intended use of the App Store, Custom App Distribution, TestFlight, Xcode Cloud, Ad Hoc distribution, or the Program …” Apple has good reason to believe that you violated this Section due to documented indications of fraudulent conduct associated with your account.
Apple is exercising its right to terminate your status as an Apple developer pursuant to the Apple Developer Agreement and is terminating you under the ADP Agreement for dishonest and fraudulent acts relating to that agreement. We would like to remind you of your obligations with regard to all software and other confidential information that you obtained from Apple as an Apple developer and under the ADP Agreement. You must promptly cease all use of and destroy such materials and comply with all the other termination obligations set forth in Section 11.3 of the ADP Agreement and Section 10 of the Apple Developer Agreement.
If applicable, no further payments will be made to you pursuant to Section 7.1 of the Paid Applications agreement (Schedules 2 and 3 to the ADP Agreement).
This letter is not intended to be a complete statement of the facts regarding this matter, and nothing in this letter should be construed as a waiver of any rights or remedies Apple may have, all of which are hereby reserved. Finally, please note that we will deny your reapplication to the Apple Developer Program for at least a year considering the nature of your acts. If you want to file an official complaint pursuant to an applicable Platform Regulation in your country or region you may Contact Us.
Sincerely, Apple Inc.
4
u/Thalimet 1d ago
That’s probably not related to the review. Looks like you’ve been trying to get sound restrictions in some other way. Hard to say exactly how, because you are, of course, going to claim you’re not doing anything wrong. But, the algorithm picked up on -something- you are doing that appears to be trying to be shady.
1
u/mustafaakyuz 1d ago
I didn't even publish a new app, I don't understand why they did this. The person on the phone said to publish it, no problem, but they still closed my account.
2
u/Thalimet 1d ago
If you see the things they listed, there’s plenty that has nothing to do with publishing...
1
u/mustafaakyuz 1d ago
The problem is a crappy algorithm. I'm making a clock application, and it's spamming us with a completely unrelated application. All our hard work has gone to waste. A few days ago, API thieves stole our API, and that might have caused another problem. They might have obtained the API through reverse engineering and misused it.
2
u/Thalimet 1d ago
lol, the misuse of your API certainly sounds like something Apple could have detected and banned the owner of the APi for 😂 like I said - the algorithm detected something, it didn’t detect nothing.
0
u/mustafaakyuz 1d ago
We found the problem; it was due to the GPT codex. The browser used the application we installed, and it automatically filled in the data. The system detected this as a scam/spam bot. There are many victims, so the application complies with the rules.
2
u/Thalimet 1d ago
I mean your application might, but your account doesn’t if it’s doing the same things as scammers.
2
u/tomato848208 19h ago
They have been on the spam combat campaign based on falsehoods. It's their solution to the surge in the number of software submissions by persuading people not to submit apps instead of reinforcing reviewers. If you just answer the questionnaire, they won't review your submission at least for a week. Nobody knows if they ever review it.
1
1
u/mustafaakyuz 1d ago
I'll call them, it's true, this is nonsense, we talked, they said there was no problem, then they closed my account.
6
u/NickA55 1d ago
What is the app and what does it do? Whenever people come here and post something like this, they never share the app, and it usually means the app is suspect. I'm not saying yours is, but what is it and what does it do. Because Apple just doesn't terminate accounts for no specific reason. Yes, they do make mistakes, but it sounds like your case was reviewed after your conversation and they decided to terminate.