App Rejected: Guideline 5.2.1 - Legal - Intellectual Property

"The seller and company names associated with your app do not reflect the name “XX" in the app or its metadata, as required by Guideline 5.2.1 of the App Store Review Guidelines. Your app must be published under a seller name and company name that reflects the "XX" name."


Hello,

we are a company from Greece which develops applications for (mostly) Greek and EU municipalities. Our main solution "Improve My City" is customized for the needs of different municipalities by adding the logo of the municipality and changing the name of the app e.g. "Improve My City: Athens". Lately our apps are being rejected from the app store and requested to be published under the corresponding accounts of each municipality instead of our own account. The problem with that request is that for a greek municipality to enroll in Apple’s developer program through credit card is impossible based on current greek legislation and governmental practices. While there are some options for fee waivers, they are only limited to the US, leaving us with no option. We request some help on how to proceed.


Regards,

George
P.S. All of our apps are free with no in-app purchases

Replies

About a year or two ago Apple started rejecting multiple similar apps (e.g. Princeton Barber Shop, Newark Barber Shop, Pete's Local Barber Shop) and telling developers that they should develop a single 'container app' for all of the apps. I think this is the reason for your rejection. You can search this Forum for 'container app' and see the earlier discussion.


Another 'solution' to the container app problem is to have each individual app developed by the 'owner' of that entity. This makes sense if the app is a Barber Shop app like the example above. It does not make sense for you. I suspect App Review is suggesting a solution that does not work for you. Consider the container app "ImproveMyCity" that opens with a page that says "Select Your City" and includes all of your cities. If you are charging, you can use an IAP to unlock each city.

Hi liarosge,


Is this still an issue, or did you find a solution?