A rather alarming email from the Apple - how to solve this situation?

6 points by wojteksz 12 years ago | 6 comments

Hi guys, We've received rather alarming email from Apple (I am attaching it on the bottom) saying that we did something we did not do.

I must say that we are digital publishing startup and we have more than 100 apps on our iTunes developer account. All apps belong to our publishers (clients) and we can suspect that some of them has crossed the line (but not us).

Of course in front of Apple we are the client. We understand it and that's why we have just asked Apple support member (during scheduled call) to help us identified THIS app or have some tools from Apple allowing us to monitor such forbidden behavior of our publishers (we do NOT control our publishers).

But Apple said something what can be translated into "screw you developer, you are guilty and you will be punished".

Have you faced similar case to ours? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

{ Email from Apple START QUOTE *

We are writing to inform you that your company is not in compliance with the iOS Developer Program License Agreement (PLA) due to documented evidence of manipulation of the user reviews and/or chart rankings associated with your apps on the App Store.

Section 12.2 (Termination) states:

(f) if You engage, or encourage others to engage, in any misleading, fraudulent, improper, unlawful or dishonest act relating to this Agreement, including, but not limited to, misrepresenting the nature of Your submitted Application

(e.g., hiding or trying to hide functionality from Apple’s review, falsifying consumer reviews for Your Application, etc.).

Be aware that employing services that manipulate App Store chart rankings or user reviews on your behalf may also result in the loss of your developer program membership.

Please address this issue promptly.

END QUOTE }

kohanz 12 years ago |

> But Apple said something what can be translated into "screw you developer, you are guilty and you will be punished".

Really? I'm not reading that at all. Of course the letter sounds a bit cold and harsh, but that's how these types of (semi-automated) mechanisms will work. How likely is it for the mechanism that triggered this e-mail to be aware that you are just a middle-man for the real app publishers? Moreover, why should they care? As the listed publisher, the responsibility to police your clients is rightly on you.

Please address this issue promptly.

Sounds to me like they are giving you an opportunity to respond.

wojteksz 12 years ago | |

Yes really. We asked Apple during telephone conversation to tell us which application they are taking about but they did not tell us.

So they expect us to take action but don't provide neccesary data.

tehwebguy 12 years ago | |

Agreed, just work with them.

Also be prepared to terminate one or more of your publishers if it turns out that they are breaking the rules.

wojteksz 12 years ago | | |

We would love to work with them but they are not responsive. Also I would like to terminate particulate app but Apple doesn't say anything which app.

EB5 12 years ago |

> Please address this issue promptly.

That`s what you do.

1. Tell them that you provide a service to clients yourself.

2. Ask them if they can give you information on which app`s reputation system was tempered with.

3. Tell them that you will address this issue immediately and that you will remove the apps from the Appstore (indefinitely!!). Don tell them you will talk with your customers and try to fix this or something. Be frank and let them know that you apply a no tolerance strategy (just like them).

fortunajs 12 years ago |

http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?fid=0E80F80D42F634... - seems that Apple put some heuristics on and there is a group of people facing the same problems