Re: The reported PLA 1.2 guideline issue is in regards to the seller and company names associated with your app not reflect the name “COMPANY NAME” in the app or its metadata, as required by section 1.2 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.

i got stuck in the same problem

The seller and company names associated with your app do not reflect the name, “Lumique ,” in the app or its metadata, as required by section 1.2 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.

Next Steps

Your app must be published under a seller name and company name that reflects the Lumique  brand. If you have developed these apps on behalf of a client, please advise your client to add you to the development team of their Apple Developer account.

Once created, you cannot change your seller name or company name in iTunes Connect. For assistance with changing your company name or seller name, you will need to contact iTunes Connect through the Contact Us page.

Same problem here as well, submitting app first time under an individual developer account.

The name of my app is "mypal" and it is purely a personal name and not a company name. The App Store has another "myPAL Player" app. I'm trying to seek clarification on if that conflicts or something? Otherwise it's quite ambigious.

Same issue here, i don't know how to solve this issue i made this app by my own, i have a developer license with my name, any work around.

Hi,

I have sent the review board appeal about the same issue. And waiting for their answer.

Same problem here! Did you guys managed to get it approved? How did you do it?

Thank you!

We are having the same problem. Has anyone found a solution? I submitted an appeal to the app review board but have yet to hear back from them.

Hi,

I might be able to help on this. I just got my app approved and had the same reason.

You need to make sure, that if your app is called XYZ and you are the owner 123, that 123 owns all copyright for the app and it's content within. If the content is third-party make sure you comment this in comments box. It's quite reasonable, as I might upload an app called Windows for iOS and do not even own the copyright for this brand. Also, make sure you write the correct name etc. in the copyright box, who owns the brand. It's not the app name, but the publisher or if you develop for someone, it's his company/client name.

I don't think it's that complictaed with Apple, you just need to be straight forward.

I hope this helps someone!

Has anyone solved the problem yet? Could you give me an advice

How to prove that the copyright application "123" belong to me?

I also had this problem. In the copywriting box was still mentioned 2016. After changing this in 2017 and saving it the app was approved.

Me to! this is so confusing.. do I need to change my application name so its contain my Company name (example 123 - XYZ) ? or do I need change the bunddle id in my app (my bunddle id currently doest have my company name in it) is it related? anyone have the answer?

I'm having the same problem.

PLA 1.2 is a tricky policy for companies that have an app distribution agreement with another company.

The copyright field in the review is meaningless, even though i've clearly inputed the contracting company.

I think Apple should understand that many people are struggling with PLA 1.2.

I'm talking to the App Review team, but there's no consensus.

Ya, this completely blows.  We do contracted work for other companies.  Switching hundreds of apps to separate developer accounts is completely unreasonable.  The customers also want nothing to do with dealing with accounts.  They just want an app.

I have the same situation. Apples requires the creation of developer accounts for each company. But it's just not possible. Companies do not want to create their own accounts. They have no resources and time. Why would Apple do that? Why do they do it? It is not correct. And most importantly, what to do now? You need to prove that the application should be in my developer account.

What to specify in the application? What to write in the copyright line?

I believe the true issue here is branding. Once an app name is registered on the app store (published or not) it is effectively locked in for that one app. No other app can have a name resembling that "brand". The Apple developer account that registered that name is the only one that can transfer that name to another developer account.

I can see Apple's concerns, but Apple doesn't seem to be concerned about the developers nor the monetary impact our clients are facing due to this rule. While $99/year is not much by itself, but after you multiply that by 150+ and all the man hours required to manage the individual developer accounts things start to add up quickly.

I believe there are far more effective ways of dealing with branding issues. Having to provide legal documentation with the app stating we have permissions to said brand is one alternative. Another is to offer a "company" portal that our clients can register their brand(s) within Apple. From there we would be given express permissions to use their branding similar to how the MFi product plan ids work. If they don't want us to develop for them any longer they can remove us from their list.

I am also developing my own App with my personal developer account and it got rejected for the same reason. Any one found a way out of this?

Hello

My app was rejected for the same reason.

I made my app to my company, but it shows some information of STORES near my location.

Anyone know how can I publish my app with these technical features without be reject by this reason.

I also have the same problem and have appealed the Review Team but haven't get any clear response about that 1.2 point. I thougt it has to be with web-shops embedded in web views, but I couldn't confirm it as there is no a regular pattern of rejection.

I am having the exact same issue all of a sudden. I have 125 apps in the apple store on behalf of small businesses and despite changing stuff around its still rejected.

Hello guys, how you doing?

Do you have any news on this case?

I tried to put a letter signed by our client but still no luck.

Best regards

All people have this trouble ...

i think apple are crazy!

i  will quit apple developer i will go only to google

because apple are bad!!!

''PLA 1.2'' ???????

I have been trying to get a clarification, but everytime I ask Apple for advise, I get the same boilerplate answer without any tangible advise.

I have one developer account and multiple apps for sale with different names.  This has worked fine for over four years.

Is Apple actually suggesting that you now need a separate developer account with a name matching the app name??? I hope not, and I can't imagine that they would do that.  Not only would it be cost prohibitive for small developer, but it would be very difficult to manage.

Apple, if you are listening, please give us some reasonable guidance.

Thank you.

I have the same issue. My developer individual account is under my name Anderson Murakami and my App is named "Loucos por Ofertas" .

Why the app name is reflect in my developer name ?

I created, the name, the logo, the app and heve no any App with the same name on App Store.

I have tried Loucos por Ofertas by Anderson Murakami in app name, but is not accepted too.

Anybody have a suggests ?

We have encountered the same issue, we now have to set up a developer account for every new client! We should be able to provide a letter of consent from the client to allow us to use the name, logo and URL's of the client which is sufficient for google play, why not apple.

This is a massive change and will trun many off developping apps.

Let me know if you have anyway around this or have heard any news about what might happen.

Same problem here! We can't set up a developer account for every new client! And, more important, we can't give control of our apps to the client because of commercial reasons! What happens if the client does not pay? How can we remove the app from AppStore if the client does not pay?

APPLE: we should be able to provide a letter of consent from the client! Our clients are seriously considering to migrate to other platforms!

I tell you my story.

Updating my application innocently change where it appears company name, my account is developer not company, since that change was a week of struggle to publish the update.

what happened? Began to jump that rejection, apparently if you have a own account developer, you can publish applications but if the idea is yours and does not belong to any brand or company. If your idea belongs to a brand you must have the permission and / or that company registered in apple.

suggestions:

1- Add all the information in the metadata before sending for review, if you answer, apple answers 1 of 10 and does not solve anything. Directly prepare it for review again by adding what you requested in the resolution center.

2- the name: if the name of your app looks like the one of another registered, they can reject the binary, search well in which app store is the problem, in my case it was in English (USA), that error is The one that mentions the problem of brand.

3- My application is about a free service. But an item in my application made them think that it was a business, I had to change the item (in this case apple sent me a capture) this is the error that says that you have to be registered as a business.

4- Have patience is a round trip until they convince themselves that you are not making this application on behalf of another company.

In the course of the week I skipped all the rejection below but have a solution you just add in the metadata what you are asked and expect them to be convinced. Once you get into that wheel you have to convince the guys. there is no other solution.

Well I hope that little data helps you. regards

From a developement perspective, I would like highlight the issues with "PLA 1.2":

Apparantly it says that the "The seller and company names associated with your app do not reflect the app name". A lot of businesses are registered as "Sole Trader". So according to Apple Developer Program, the client has to be enrolled for Personal Account.

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Quoting from Apple Website (https://developer.apple.com/programs/enroll/)

Enrolling as an Individual

If you are an individual or SOLE PROPRIETOR/SINGLE PERSON BUSINESS, sign in with your Apple ID to get started. You’ll need to provide basic personal information, including your legal name and address.

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So if the owner of the business is enrolled as an Apple Developer (Personal Account), then he has to do the following:

- Create Signing Certificate using a public/private key-pair

- Create Provisioning Profiles

- Create Push notification entitlements

- Create AppStore listing in iTunes Connect

- Submit the app for review

- And many more (as you know)

As you know creating these certificates and provisioning profiles are not easy even for an experienced developer. So most of it is done by XCode, but the small business owner doesn't know XCode or even simple programming. Even if we were to teach him, he may not have a Mac (as XCode only runs on Mac), so he might have to invest in a Mac as well. Even if he were to do all this, we are afraid that it might take months for someone without any programming background to learn the essential basics of IOS development.

Please Apple, make changes to PLA 1.2, such that chefs/hairdressers/lawyers etc are not forced to enroll for Apple Developer Account. Now-a-days a lot depends on having an app especially for small businesses. Please consider this letter to represent the voices of 1000s of small-businesses out there, who are eager to get their businesses on the AppStore. Please make it easy for them to have their own app.

If AppStore starts rejecting app on this basis, then gaints like Uber and JustEat will have their apps listed for sure, but small-businesses will not stand a chance against them.

Published an update for an App 2 monthes ago.

It has been rejected many times for different reasons. One of those was PLA 1.2.

After a long e-mail conversation, one day Apple phoned me and start a conversation to explain the reasons of the App rejection.

Here is what they told me (and then wrote me on my Apple Developer Account discussion) about PLA 1.2:

"To be in compliance, unique apps developed for individual pharmacies..." (the rejected App was for a pharmacy but i think it can be read as "client") "...would need to be submitted under a seller name and company name that reflects the individual pharmacy."

because of this tipical crypting way to explain their reasons, I asked for more clearness. Here is what they answered:

"To clarify, unique apps developed for individual pharmacies will need to be submitted under a seller name and company name that reflects the individual pharmacy as required by App Store Review Program License Agreement PLA 1.2."

So, finally, I think that with the new PLA 1.2, if a Developer Agency wants to publish an App on behalf of a client, a new Apple Developer Account is needed.

We ran into the same issue. Basically it's a trademark issue. I'm not arguing if it's right or wrong. But the solution:

1. Either you have to list in the developer account of your customer.
2. Or legally acquire the trademark and brand name of your customer (may be limited for the purpose of AppStore/PlayStore/Digital Marketing)

I know point 2 sounds a bit off. I agree it is.

Let's take an example:

Developer: FooBar Software
App: No1 Pharma

In AppStore listing, the seller of the app is the developer. So from the user point of view, if you look at the listing on AppStore, it would say the app "No1 Pharma" is being sold by "FooBar Software". This doesn't sound right.

Another case:

The publishing rights of Harry Potter Books (acc. to wiki) is owned by Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) and Scholastic (US)

Developer: Bloomsbury Publishing
App: Harry Potter

This will sound right, in spite of the fact that the seller name and app name did not match. The listing would read "Bloomsbury Publishing" is the seller of the app "Harry Potter". This sounds right. So Bloomsbury can publish all the trademarks/brands it owns as different apps in it's developer account.

Perhaps AppStore might choose to differentiate the developers from sellers. Because developers are not sellers. That's the reality.

Let's say IBM develops the "Harry Potter" app for "Bloomsbury", then the listing should read:

Developer: IBM
Seller: Bloomsbury
App: Harry Potter

Hope this helps.

Just for information, I solved this issue only by changing the Copyright.

- The App name is : "Pharmacie Gal"

- Dev account : Jerome Nguyen

- Copyright was : 2016 VotreAppli.fr

I changed the copyright to "2017 Pharmacie GAL, Jerome Nguyen (Development)" and it passed.

Good luck guys.

These rules has been enforced only to newly created app not the existing apps since its really hard to understand how to fix this ?

I recived the contact team support Apple.

They responded a my app is of health category and this category apps must be posted by the account client for PLA 1.2 reason.

Not explain for me the real reason (with more details) the PLA 1.2 and apps of heath have this restriction now and passed me the link to send appeal this rejection to the Apple.

I sent the appeal and i´m waiting for the answer from the team apple.

So, my app not yet is in with the new version.

Do you have any new solutions?

I still see many application publishers that publish applications for their clients without problems. Why are some publishers able to publish applications for their customers? What is the solution?

Did anyone find a solution to this?

I am the creator of the app and got the same rejection.

Does this new rule extend to Organisations like Sports Clubs?

If so then this kills this Business for me. Totally unworkable at a time when Apps are becoming less appealing with Desktop Notifications.

Apple have helped rush on the death of Apps as a Business.

To be honest, this is really a total letdown to the industry. I am located in Indonesia, where I am charging the amount of IDR 1,000,000 / year for iOS & Android app for small businesses like restaurants, cafe, shops, etc. That amounts to only around USD75 / year. Anything more than that will cause clients to not wanna make apps anymore. I even create apps for businesses for FREE just to gain their trust, with ad-supported content to cover our costs. Now thanks to Apple's new 1.2 PLA, we had to ask clients to register an Apple Developer Program at $99/year? The price alone is already killing my business. Sales are now dwindling more than 50% of what we used to earn. I am only offering Android app to customers now, without the possibility of iOS app unless clients are able/willing to pay for the $99 / year ADP membership.

So basically what I am saying:

1. Indonesia is a country where USD 100 - 150 is a common labor wages average. Charging for website more than that has a high decline percentage, not to mention apps.
2. 1.2 PLA forcing clients to have $99 / year ADP membership will become the main source of decline.
3. I have a 60-70% rate of biz owners who don't have credit cards and/or unwilling to pay $99/year even if they have credit cards. Indonesia is a country with high distrust concern towards CC usage, Paypal, online payment, etc.
4. I have client who has like 20 brands (running many e-commerce brands), who will never ever pay for $99 / year x 20 brands = $1,980 / year. She just said this is crazy.
5. Android app market is looking more profitable now that iOS App Store looks like it's gearing to become more elitist.

I will keep watching on this thread, any help to solve this issue is deeply appreciated. Meanwhile, it will be a bye-bye from us to Apple Store. Good luck guys!

Hi, I have the same problem. My app is a medical type of app, which allows users to select a hospital and login with their credentials within the hospital. The content is coming from each hospital and isn’t owned by the company I’m working for. However, we have the agreement with these hospitals to enable the connection usage of their content and data. How can I fix this problem. Please advise. I can’t open an account for each hospital as then Apple would reject the app if it is the same for each hospital. The whole point of the app is to have an app as a service and to have one access end point for all agreed hospitals.