Google suddenly terminated our Start-Ups Google Play Developer account — and yours could be next!
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TL;DR
- Our Start-ups Google Play Developer account got terminated
- We didn’t receive any strike and never got any app suspended
- We were not given any specific reason for the termination
- The Google Play Developer support is not answering our appeal
- It caused a lot of financial and personal trouble within our developer team
- We spent thousands of dollars for developing & advertising and lost it all
- It totally destroyed the vision and goals of our company
Update
After more than one month Google Play replied to the appeal just to tell us they won’t reinstate the developer account.
Reason? “Associated accounts” and “prior violations”. Even tho our company NEVER had a developer account before, they still kept saying so. They didn’t give us any evidence or such. It is just a plain (and wrong) accusation.
We explained everything in detail and were even willing to share documents with them, but no, all they said was: “As much as I’d like to help, I’m not able to provide any more detail or a better answer to your question. In our previous email, I made sure to include all the information available to me.”
Outcome? Two Android developer, which now don’t have a job anymore. Well done, Google.
Update 2
It has been 5 months since our developer account got terminated — and of course, it didn’t get reinstatet. And no, we also didn’t get any real reason from Google. Our company was incorporated in March 2021. We made a business Google Play Developer account and just around 2 months after we uploaded our first app, they terminate our account for “prior violations” and “associated accounts”. We never had any previous accounts. We never violated any guidelines. None of our apps got suspended or removed before.
So what could be the cause? A broken AI, which randomly flags and terminates accounts? Maybe. Or maybe, because one of our developers got his account terminated before. Even if this is the case: Is it fair to terminate the developer account of a whole company, give them a lifetime ban, just because one individual made a mistake or got his account terminated for whatever reason before? We don’t know if one of our devs got their account terminated and we will never know.
But what we know is that Google is doing some very unethical things. Basically ruin businesses for whatever reason.
So if I could give you one advice: Better be careful who you hire for developing Android apps. If this person has a “dark history”, you could risk your individual/business developer account, even if you never did something wrong, even if you never had any problems and always followed the guidelines.
We provided Google with all kinda information. We sent them business certificates and many other information — they didn’t care.
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If you are an Android developer, Start-up or you plan to publish apps on the Google Play Store in the future, you should be aware of this because Google’s algorithm can terminate your developer account or whole business at any time for no reason.
Introduction
In March 2021, despite the difficult circumstances in the world, some developers and I decided that we would create a startup that would primarily publish apps for Android and iOS. Together we spent thousands of dollars and countless hours of work to develop apps, which we then successfully published on the Google Play Store.
It might be important to mention our company is fully verified on Google. We have already spent a lot of money on Google Adwords, were able to generate revenue through Admob and in-app purchases. Also, our company uses Google Cloud, Google Analytics/Firebase and other services from Google. We went through the whole verification process to build trust with Google and to be as transparent as we can in order to prevent any unpleasant surprise like the sudden termination of our Google Play Developer account.
Termination of our Google Play Developer account
On July 1st, 2021, we suddenly received an email that our Google Play Developer account was terminated. Of course, we were absolutely shocked and speechless. After I shared the email in our group, we started to discuss why this would happen and immediately wrote an appeal to restore the Google Play Developer account.
The reason is: “Prior violations of the Developer Program Policies and Developer Distribution Agreement by this or associated accounts as outlined in previous emails sent to the registered email address(es) of the Publisher account(s).
To be clear right away: Our company (including myself personally) never had any previous Google Play Publisher account. Especially not one, which got terminated before. We didn’t receive any “previous email” as well.
We have no idea how Google came to this conclusion. Besides this email above, they didn’t give us any specific reason, no evidence or whatsoever. We didn’t even know what to think of this or how we could formulate the appeal. What do they mean by “associated accounts”? There is no previous “associated” account. This was the one and only Google Play Developer account of our start-up.
Google Play Developer account terminated because of “associated accounts”?
This is where things are getting really messy and could be a potential threat to every single Android developer out there. Why? Because this is “guilt by association”. Or in other words: Just because someone around you, maybe a person you don’t even know, made a mistake and got his account terminated, you might end up getting yours terminated as well. You don’t know when you don’t know how and you don’t know why. Google is not giving you any specific reason or evidence.
We talked about this in our team and of course, people started questioning each other. Maybe someone had a Google Play Developer account before, which got terminated and this might be the reason for the termination? Of course, everyone denied it, nobody wanted to be responsible for this and of course, it is understandable. But this whole situation brought a lot of trouble in our developer team and people started accusing each other.
Even if one of our developers would have had an account that got terminated in the past, it doesn’t justify terminating the account of the company, which is fully verified on Google, as we said before. Google knows it is the business account of the company. It is not the account of an individual. There is absolutely no justification for this action. This is our conclusion.
However, we started to think of potential reasons for this termination. We found out there could be a few:
- Someone used the same WiFi network as someone who got his account terminated, which could be possible because some of our developers are sometimes working in a co-working space.
- Someone used the same device to access a Google account that had a terminated Developer account.
- For certain tasks, we are using a VPS for the workflow. It could be possible someone with a terminated Developer account uses the same VPS provider.
These are all just assumptions. In the end, we have no clue what Google means by “associated accounts” and how they came to this conclusion. But what is definitely wrong is to terminate the developer account due to “guilt by association”.
Strikes, suspensions or other previous violations?
This part confused us a little bit. As I wrote above, we don’t really have any idea why Google terminated our account. We never got any strike and never got any applications suspended. However, our first app got “rejected” twice due to the description. The second app got removed after the account got terminated. Yes, really, the app got removed, after the account got terminated.
The removal:
There was a mistake in the Chinese titles of the app, but the removal had nothing to do with the application itself. We are not native Chinese speakers and in our opinion such mistakes can happen. It’s worth mentioning the app has been published three months ago and the Chinese titles haven’t been any problem before.
The rejection:
The reason for the rejection was a grammar error in one of the descriptions. Think of this reason whatever you want. We are thankful they brought this to our attention, but we are not quite sure if it is “misleading, improperly formatted, non-descriptive, irrelevant, excessive or inappropriate. It was simply one grammar error in the text of 600 words.
Are these reasons to terminate the Google Play Developer account? According to Google: No!
Let’s see what Google says:
According to Google rejections and removals (multiple removals may result in the suspension of the app) are NOT having any impact on the standing of the Google Play Developer account.
As I said before: We never got any strike and never got any app “suspended”. According to Google’s own definition and policy, they shouldn’t have terminated our account for this reason.
Support and the appeal
If you thought it couldn’t get any more frustrating, you thought wrong.
We sent an appeal just one hour after we saw the termination email. Did we get any response so far? Absolutely not. It has been 6 days and we didn’t get any reply. All we got was an automated email saying:
Besides the appeal form, which is limited to 1000 characters, there is no way of contacting Google Play or any responsible person. No person you can talk to, no phone number or anything like this.
This is truly remarkable because we are not talking about a small problem here. We are talking about the whole future of a company, countless hours and thousands of dollars invested into developing apps, the jobs and salaries of our employees, thousands of users, and much more.
Basically, all you can do is sending an appeal and use the 1000 characters to plead your innocence, which is quite difficult to begin with, because we had no idea why they would terminate our account in the first place.
Who is watching the watchmen?
We kept asking ourselves: Who actually decided to terminate our account? Was it an algorithm? An AI? An employee? Why would they suddenly terminate the account of a start-up without any prior warning or whatsoever? Why wouldn’t they give us a real and specific reason?
Even if we get a reply to our appeal, who is the person to decide over the future of the company and several employees? Is it an actual person who replies to the appeal?
The huge problem is: Google Play is a monopoly. They have all the users. If you are an Android developer and you are not publishing your apps on the Google Play Store, you miss out on a lot of users and revenue. Google has a lot of power and therefore they held a lot of responsibility. Not only for the average users but also the developers.
We don’t even want to start talking about the fact that once your Google Play Developer account got terminated, you are not allowed to make another one. Basically, you are getting a “lifetime ban”. Is this fair? We highly doubt it.
You could be the next one
It is quite amazing how many people and companies have been in the same situation and lost their Google Play Developer account because of “guilt by association” or similar “reasons”.
This is not a coincidence or a one-off problem. This is a structural problem at Google Play and the affected ones are the developers and companies. They are literally taking people’s hard work, invested time and money, jobs, and dreams at risk by terminating their Google Play Developer account for any kind of reason.
Something has to change. The only way to get attention is if more developers and entrepreneurs speak out.
As for us: we can only hope that Google will finally answer us. It would also be very helpful if you could share this post.
If any Google or Google Play employee should read this: Please raise awareness of this problem. It takes the hard work, dreams, and savings of people at a risk.
