Announcement: Paid CWS Item Rejections

[Simeon Vincent]

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan. 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

Mar. 20, 2020 update: As of early February paid items are no longer being rejected on submission.

Regards,

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

[Fatty Noparents]

Thank you for the update!

I have written multiple times replying to the rejection letter about two of my paid extensions that existed in the Store for more than a year.

I have not received any reply, and the extensions are still in the Pending review status.

What more can be done from my side?

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 3:39:55 AM UTC+3, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

[KM Software]

Hello,
Thanks for this announcement.

Before this announcement was made, our team tried to publish pro version of one of our extension
by trying various things such as re-uploading the extension file,
Changing the icon, changing description and pricing and other things.

When we were doing this our extension would get rejected immediately after publishing it,
we had hopes that the extension will eventually get into "Pending Review" status,
however during this process our developer account accumulated a lot of "Rejected" statuses.

After a while some bot or automation script that may have been looking for accounts with too many "Rejected" review
statuses suspended our developer account.

We strongly believe that suspension of our account happened because of above or similar error in
automated checker that was looking for suspending accounts.

In the email that I received from Chrome web store team on Saturday evening there was
no information provided as to why our account was suspended, it looked like an automated e-mail.

I have been developing Chrome extensions full time since 2014, I understand the policies I have read
them a-lot of times and understood them by publishing various extensions and communicating
with the review team via e-mail.

All of our products respect international data and privacy laws, Chrome web store policies and
intellectual property laws.

Following are the extension IDs that are affected:
oahgcmmcmgnkdpgkfcaefdpjgejehcpd
cepgdfoadopmkibelakenekijpbbcnlf
bfgoiiandhlddbcenmpijfpacgkdeenp
jccenejpjllmhkgialmndmohlflkfblk
egiplchcaoijhepijgipppcencnplaoc
dmfgbagojglecgaheiaggkhjemlfoclf
cfoijgjkinadiedfgkpdkeipkedfjcfk
dlkhokpgfmdimhngmoohbpcbchhniood

Above extensions have never been taken down or rejected by Chrome web store team in the past.
Review procedure for all the above extensions have been very smooth for us, our extensions on
average would get approved by your team within 1-2 days time period.
We had not received any take down or removal notices on our developer account.

Also this is the only CWS developer account operated on behalf of our company
"KodeMuse Software Private Limited".

We are only using Chrome web store for distribution of our products. We are accepting
payments only through Chrome web store, none of the payments that we have been fraudulent,
you can confirm it by looking through our Google payments history.

I have responded to suspension emails that we had received but have not heard from
anyone ever since.

We ask someone from Chrome team to look into this issue and re-instate our account
if suspension of our account was an error.

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 6:09:55 AM UTC+5:30, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

[Vasco Gomes]

Hi Simeon, please keep us updated on this because I have read that now the extensions are immediately rejected and some Devs even got their account banned.

Now I think all developers are afraid to submit extensions.

Please keep us updated and give us feedback when it's safe to submit again extensions and/or extensions updates to the Webstore.

Greetings.

[Karl]

Hey Simeon,

thanks for this information. At least now I know that I am not alone and it is not because of my extension.

I have now replied multiple times to the computer generated e-mail, but unfortunately still no answer received.

Kind regards

Am Samstag, 25. Januar 2020 01:39:55 UTC+1 schrieb Simeon Vincent:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

[Florian Krüsch]

In the meantime my CWS and one of the payment accounts has been suspended as well and the appeal to reinstate it failed.

I'm aware now that I made two big mistakes:

- initially I wanted to offer a trial version. But the sandbox didn't work. So I just paid and reimbursed multiple times (before the extension went live)

- Then, in December I offered the app for a small price (~1.49) and asked a few friends to buy it. Because I didn't want to deal with the implies tax stuff in 2019, I reimbursed them and asked them to buy again in January.

Probably this raised all of the red flags. Not sure if I have a chance to get reinstated ever again.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think reimbursements are a very dangerous thing to do.

Florian

Am Sa., 25. Jan. 2020 um 01:39 Uhr schrieb Simeon Vincent <sim...@chromium.org>:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Regards,

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

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[Chrome Extension developer]

Thank you for this update. This has also affected a lot of our extensions - around 50 were taken down because we wanted to update to the new version with improved UX. And the explanation was that it was 'deceptive behavior' - Let us know when this will be solved- Also, one of our accounts was suspended. 

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 1:39:55 AM UTC+1, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

[Simeon Vincent]

KM Software, please use the account reinstatement form to appeal the suspension if you haven't already. Given the character limit on that form, you may also want to link to this thread.

Cheers,

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

[Nodir N]

Oh that what was going on? I got suspended from developer dashboard and my payment system got completely canceled by google team without the ability to restore it! OMG, you guys should have notify developers about such stuff!

On Friday, January 24, 2020 at 6:39:55 PM UTC-6, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[wooshark dropshipping]

thank you for your clarification 

from some weeks all the updates to my extensions were rejected but the extensions were still on the store

this morning, I wake up with two emails from chrome webstore about removal notification of my 2 extensions, I think I will get more emails according to this thread.

I have already replied to all the emails and used all possible form to contact the team

I hope this issue will be solved soon and the account will not be affected by this repeated rejection of the extensions, 

[Nodir N]

Thanks to this link I managed to reintate my developer account, but my payment account got completely canceled according to Google's tech support, I wonder if I will be able get paid for my paid extension...

[David Wilkinson]

We once added a in-app purchase (a subscription) when we were trying to get webstore payments working with a subscription. We couldn't get it working properly, and we gave up after a few weeks. We still have the 'Offers in-app purchases' label in the webstore. Are we affected by this issue? Can you delete the 'in-app' subscription item (no subscribers), so we can just be a regular extension again? Extension id is hoombieeljmmljlkjmnheibnpciblicm, 300k users.

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 1:39:55 AM UTC+1, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[Nodir N]

Hi,

What is the procedure on converting an app to paid one? My app is now available in web store only by link, but I want to charge money for it, I am scarred that when I start charging money, it will be rejected or taken down, my app does not collect any personal information.

Thanks for advice.

On Friday, January 24, 2020 at 6:39:55 PM UTC-6, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[ManuTz SonG]

not a single email reply back. this is my 4th times already.

ojdacaeifolmomdnjodfmojipkmkboii

[Chrome Extension developer]

Hello Simeon,

do you happen to know when there will be news regarding publishing extensions? One of my accounts has been suspended and it said that I had violated the policy many times. After trying to solve what was wrong with my extensions, I tried to make changes several times and failed every time. And I tried to get a response from the Chrome Web store team but only got vague responses where I didn't exactly figure out what was happening. I got only generic emails with this content:

"Impersonation or Deceptive Behavior"

This policy prohibits deceiving and confusing users, including about the source or affiliation of your item; by mimicking the operating system, browser or Chrome Web Store; by including false or misleading content in your item page, or by misrepresenting or failing to disclose non-obvious functionality. Please review the section in our Program Policies for a detailed explanation of the policy.

To have your item reinstated, please make changes to ensure:

• The description in your Chrome Web Store listing clearly and fully explains the purpose and functionality of the extension.
• There are no functionalities unrelated to the primary purpose of the extension.
• The item and its Chrome Web Store listing do not attempt to mislead users by implying an official endorsement or relationship with another entity.

And now one of my accounts has been suspended and 'Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, we cannot provide any additional information regarding this issue.' ??

These are all New Tab extensions with simple features and limited permission requirements. Has nothing to do with any official endorsement, or there are functionalities unrelated to the primary purpose of the extensions. 

I would really appreciate some advice and what to do next...

Best,

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 1:39:55 AM UTC+1, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[wooshark dropshipping]

Hello Simeon,

I have used all possible contact forms and replied to the emails that I have received with 0 reply, 

I am not sure what I will need to do next, shall I wait or republish again ? I am scared to suspend my account 

I really do not know what to do, can you please help 

already 2 extensions are retired since a couple of days,  1 rejected (cannot update because it going to be rejected again or removed from the store)  and 1 under review (all of them are paid extensions) 

cbkgkcpnnmnhoijnmbfggohhfgbmdjdh

kffojipdfimkjhelndhnnhhmahbpnhbn

cpinkfjmnnefefddofpofndoglemogmk (the update here has been rejected but the extension is still on the store but not possible to update it) 

Note that I really have done all what I can but I never received any reply, I know you are really busy and you are doing a grate work

I need only clarification 

[ilyaigpetrov]

We sent an appeal on Jan 25 for omefdeapnicniondiefejngddkjikegn and received no reply since then.

[Keiichi Hasegawa]

My item "MP MEX" with ID: nocnbjbemkaobbdoljimlhibdolieleh was rejected without any violations.

So, I sent a request for review to the rejection email.

This comment may not proceed reviewing my item, but I would like to share the situation with developers having same problem.

Thank you for Developer team's effort.

Keiichi Hasegawa

Developer from Tokyo

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 9:39:55 AM UTC+9, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[Vasco Gomes]

The testimonials here are really scary stuff.

I'm going to halt any updates until further news. My self have 1 extension in pending in review for almost 2 weeks - mjdidedjglchgdgenhicpmdpagiihfej

Hi hope Chrome can fix this as soon as possible.

Greetings.

[Nodir N]

Waiting for approval for my paid extension for a week now, got a lot of negative reviews from frustrated customers! Loosing customers day by day! what kind of attitude towards developers is that? We paid fees and this is what we get??

Should we contact some one who is responsible for this? Should we contact state representatives? Press??

On Friday, January 24, 2020 at 6:39:55 PM UTC-6, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[Sean Wilson]

Hi,

On Thursday, 30 January 2020 16:56:40 UTC+1, Vasco Gomes wrote:

The testimonials here are really scary stuff.

I'm going to halt any updates until further news.

I agree, this is really awful. I don't want to risk pushing any updates either until there's some reassurance about what's going on.

Thanks,

Sean

[Nodir N]

I would halt as well, but there were changes on serving website, and the extension is useless now, so many customers are impacted and they all are sending me angry emails and writing bad reviews, lost so many customers and income!

[Tyler Jewell]

What happened to it?

On Friday, January 24, 2020 at 4:39:55 PM UTC-8, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[Sanjay Kumar I ChroPath Creator]

What to do if extension got rejected without any rejection mail.

Please help me. I have already sent mail on cws-develo...@google.com but didn't get any update yet. 

Appreciate your help.

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 6:09:55 AM UTC+5:30, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[Karl]

Hello again,

what is the current status here? Any updates?

Has anyone been able to get an answer or upload their extension yet? If so, how? I have sent several messages to the chrome support team and used the form several times. 

I haven't received a reply for 2 weeks and my extension status is still on rejected.

And since I am worried that my account could be blocked, I have not tried new updates for a week.

To those affected, what is your plan for the future? Do you have a workaround to make updates?

Best regards

Am Samstag, 25. Januar 2020 01:39:55 UTC+1 schrieb Simeon Vincent:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

[wooshark dropshipping]

I got 2 answers.

''Upon a subsequent review, we’ve reinstated your item and it will be available in the Chrome Web Store within 30 minutes." 

I am not sure if i am safe to publish updates or not after this or my extensions will be rejected again, I am scared that next time my account can be blocked. 

I hope more good news will arrive soon

[Keiichi Hasegawa]

I sent claim to rejection email and contacted from mail form page, but I still got no reply. And stats after new publish shows orange "Pending Review".

Please review my extension ID: nocnbjbemkaobbdoljimlhibdolieleh

Same version for testers was published without any problem.

Thank you.

Keiichi Hasegawa

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 9:39:55 AM UTC+9, Simeon Vincent wrote:

[Castusoft LLC]

When I published as private or unlisted, it got approved, as soon as I published the same extension with no changes in code, but setting price, it got rejected.

So any paid extension is duplicate or spam now? We developers need to feed our kids too. What should I do now?

[ManuTz SonG]

Becareful now. If your app is paid and push for review multiple time and failed. Your app could be taken down like mine.

[Florian Krüsch]

Our account recently got reinstated after being blocked for ~10 days.

Unfortunately the extension is now in pending status since we're back for ~4 days.

Wait and see I guess.

Am Mo., 3. Feb. 2020 um 16:09 Uhr schrieb ManuTz SonG <manut...@gmail.com>:

Becareful now. If your app is paid and push for review multiple time and failed. Your app could be taken down like mine.

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[Герман Городнёв]

Hello, Simeon @dotproto.

We got "To have your item reinstated, please re-publish it in your developer dashboard." message, but new version got rejected anyways. 

Could you please let us know what to do in such situation?

суббота, 25 января 2020 г., 1:39:55 UTC+1 пользователь Simeon Vincent написал:

[Deliver API]

Just joined the extension train here. Damn, this is a total fiasco.

[Keiichi Hasegawa]

My paid CWS item was published at last !!

I sent an email to CWS developer support and filled out Privacy Tab which was newly added in Developer Dashboard.

After re-publising my item, I got a reply from CWS developer support and it was successfully available in the store.

Thank you so much and appriciate CWS developer team effort.

[Tommy H]

Hi Simeon. I also have several extensions which also got their updates rejected. 

I did receive automatic email from CWS Dev Support team but they all have the same message mentioning the Impersonation or Deceptive Behavior. I tried to fix the problems according to the email, yet it is still rejected.

Can you let me know what's wrong with my extension in detail so that I can correctly fix it?

Thank you in advance!

[Sam Salfi]

Hello,

My extension (id fdochcinmkmooanbmkmddjcggcecieke) keeps getting removed. I replied back to the email and they said to republish it will get published. I republished it and then they rejected it again. I'm not sure what I can do now to get an update to my extension.

Please advise,
Thank you

[KM Software]

Hello,

Is it now safe to publish a premium extension?

We are eagerly waiting.

[Simeon Vincent]

Yes, we are no longer rejecting extensions immediately upon submission. I'll try to get a more formal update out this afternoon.

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

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[ilyaigpetrov]

It still happens.

It's the 5th time our paid extension is rejected for "Spam and Placement in the Store" and the 5th tine we request an appeal.

[Lipe Akther]

Ok

[Azim]

Hello Simon,

My extension ID: peionlgkagofbcdmkjmnjfbpnfchdkal went though successfully for the first time. However, after testing the license in production I found little bug in there and fixed the bug republished again. Nothing changed in description or anything just one liner in the code. After that, it was flagged for spam with following text:

"Spam and Placement in the Store"

• Products must not contain false or misleading information, including in the content, title, icon, description, or screenshots.
• Descriptions must directly state the functionality of the app so that users can understand the extension they are adding.
• Screenshots must demonstrate the functionality of the extension in action.

I tried to reword things and republish multiple times but still got rejected with the same automated text. After working hard on the extension for few month and getting flagged has been frustrating experience. Replying to the emails did not help, did not get any answer. I would love to get someone take a look at the issue advise what exactly is wrong with the content. Thank you in advance.

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[Dev]

It's been more than 20hrs, but not getting any support and response :(

Free Extension has been taken down without "Pending Review" status changed.

1) Last version was published around 10th Jan 2020.

2) Then on 27th Feb, I got the mail  "Action Required: ChroPath Requires Changes to Comply with Chrome Web Store Policy"

3) I updated the policy and gave the mandatory description why I am using those permission.

4) Then my extension went on "Pending Review".

5) On 29th Feb, it got removed and plugin is still in "Pending Review"

I am very hopeless and not sure why such kind of things happening. 

Not getting any response on mail or anywhere. Can someone please please help me.

Please complete the review status and reinitiate the extension.

Allow me to update the new version. This is a free extension.

Extension id-

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chropath/ljngjbnaijcbncmcnjfhigebomdlkcjo/

On Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 8:20:19 PM UTC+5:30, Dev wrote:

This is the free extension id which has been taken down-

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chropath/ljngjbnaijcbncmcnjfhigebomdlkcjo/

Simeon, 

please help me.

On Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 8:17:09 PM UTC+5:30, Dev wrote:

This is horrible!!

Chrome has removed the Free Extension which is there in Chrome Store from more than 2years at the store with 4.7* rating and more than 160K active users.

We haven't changed any permission. As per new rule we were supposed to update the policy which we have done it.

We can see my plugin is still in "Review Pending" but it has been taken down.

Simeon and Chrome Team, it's my humble request please help me here to get it reviewed and reinitiate. Really appreciate your support.

[Z Yin]

Hi, since all of you here are paid extension developers, I'll ask a question: if I convert a free extension to "pay-and-subscribe-to-install", will my old users continue to receive updates? I know the old users never need to pay, because they already installed, but I wonder if they will continue to receive updates. Thanks!

[Simeon Vincent]

Azim,

Sorry for the delay in replying. The extension was rejected because it doesn't work. I just grabbed the draft version of the extension to test it myself. I visited https://relay.amazon.com/, clicked the browser action button, and the extension said "Something went wrong...". I poked around in devtools a bit but didn't see any obvious source of error.

Cheers, 

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

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[Simeon Vincent]

Dev,

Looks like you were able to successfully publish, but I'm not sure you've actually addressed the root problem. The reason for the rejection was that you requested but are not actually using activeTab permission. 

Cheers,

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

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[Dom]

Hi,

I have a plugin eaddejljhdjeddibkomjfonojmcegkna. The review process was super fast until last update. It is in pending mode since days. Maybe because I use a new permission "tabs". I found out I do not need this permission. So is there any possibility to stop review process or at least let people download the old version and not show a 404? I am a bit desperate because of this.

Best regards

Dom

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[Simeon Vincent]

Dom,

Unfortunately once you've unpublished an extension the only way for it to return to the web store is to republish.

Review can take up to 3 weeks to complete (FAQ). I can ask the review team to cancel the pending review, but I cannot guarantee that doing so will mean review will complete any faster. There is another consequence of requesting a new permission you may not be aware of: Chrome will disable the extension until the user grants the extension the new permissions that you've requested (docs). 

Cheers,

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

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[Jarek Foksa]

I'm getting "Publishing paid items is disabled until further notice" error after uploading an updated version of my app. Even worse, the exiting version of my app was taken down for violation of "Use of Permissions" Program Policy section.

How am I supposed to resolve the permission issues if I'm not even able to submit an updated package? 

My app ID is: gaoogdonmngmdlbinmiclicjpbjhgomg

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 1:39:55 AM UTC+1, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Extension developers,

Earlier this month the Chrome Web Store team detected a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users. Due to the scale of this abuse, we have temporarily disabled publishing paid items. This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse.

If you have paid extensions, subscriptions, or in app-purchases and have received a rejection for "Spam and Placement in the Store" this month, this is most likely the cause.

To publish an item that has been rejected, reply to the rejection email and request an appeal. You may be asked to republish your item, at which point the review should proceed normally. You must repeat this process for each new version while this measure is in place.  

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we do not have a resolution timeline at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Jan. 27th, 2020 clarification: items that do not use the Chrome Web Store payments are not affected by this issue. 

Mar. 20, 2020 update: As of early February paid items are no longer being rejected on submission.

[talha anwar]

It still shows "Publishing paid items is disabled until further notice." 

When will be allowed to upload paid extensions?