Whitelabeling Chrome Extension

[Satish Sallakonda]

Hello All -

I want to get some advise from this group on what is allowed when it comes to Whitelabeling Chrome Extension.  Some of our partners are interested to Whitelabel our chrome extension and offer it to their users. I'm trying to understand what is allowed and what are some of the best practices to achieve this:

1) Partners would like to be able to package our extension, deploy it to chrome store and offer it to their users

2) The extension will be skinned / themed to match partner application color scheme, logo

All of the code in the extension will remain the same as our current extension. 

Is this even allowed? Has anyone tried this before. If so, what are some of the best practices to get through the review process and be compliant.

Thanks,

Satish

[Владимир Янкович]

Does this apply to affiliated developers? 

We don't allow any developer or their affiliates to submit repetitive content. If related developers or publishers submit multiple extensions that provide duplicate experiences or functionality, that is a repetitive content violation. Competing extensions from unrelated developers or publishers are not considered repetitive content.

https://developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/spam-faq/#affiliates

понедельник, 25 января 2021 г. в 22:53:13 UTC+3, sallakon...@gmail.com:

[Satish Sallakonda]

Thanks so much for this information. Do you happen to know if there is a way to work through this with the Chrome team if a business case is made?

[Владимир Янкович]

No, I don't know how to solve this with the Chrome team. My experience tells me that there is no way.

But I know the technical solution. Use one extension. Pass the partner parameter into it at the time of installation and change the design for a specific partner.

The only problem is the expansion card in the store. Make the card as empty and versatile as possible so that the users don't pay attention to it.

Another option. Sell ​​code and improvements to partners. Then they themselves will publish the extension in their accounts and will not be affiliated with each other in any way.

четверг, 11 февраля 2021 г. в 00:18:43 UTC+3, sallakon...@gmail.com:

[Simeon Vincent]

Is this even allowed?

The FAQ entry What is a repetitive content violation? states that "multiple extensions that provide different user experiences are not considered repetitive content."  The original email stated that the extension would be "skinned / themed" for a customer – in my personal opinion (this is not legal advice) that is not a sufficient differentiation to constitute a "different user experience." 

Do you happen to know if there is a way to work through this with the Chrome team if a business case is made?

No, the Chrome Web Store does not carve out policy exceptions for specific developers. If you see extensions that you believe violate CWS policy, please use the "An item that should not be on the store" option on our developer support contact form to provide a detailed explanation with as much supporting evidence as possible for why you believe the item in question violates our policies.

Another option. Sell code and improvements to partners. Then they themselves will publish the extension in their accounts and will not be affiliated with each other in any way.

I'd recommend against this course. IMO (again, not legal advice) it would still be "affiliated" in that the customer is deploying an extension written by a single entity. There's still a clear line of association that can be drawn between the individual publishers.

Cheers,

Simeon - @dotproto

Chrome Extensions DevRel

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[Satish Sallakonda]

Can you help further clarify how you would implement "Pass the partner parameter into it at the time of installation and change the design for a specific partner."  Our developer looked into this option of using query string to the chrome store extension URL and they are not able to access the query string in background.js?

If you are able to point me to any implementation like this that would help.

Thanks in advance!

[Simeon Vincent]

With our June 29th, 2021 update, the Developer Program Policies related to whitelabeling have been revised. From the Spam FAQ

Are all extensions subject to the repetitive content policy? 

While all extensions are checked by the CWS review team for violations of this policy, we will allow certain valid use cases that require repetitive content. These allowed exceptions include:

…

• Enterprise extensions which provide B2B or B2B2C solutions, such as white label resellers, or which utilize multiple instances for versioning purposes. These extensions must be unlisted and distributed directly to your clients.
  

In order to qualify for these exceptions, developers must include details regarding the use case exception in the extension's description and the single purpose field. For example:

…

• "THIS IS A WHITE LABEL ENTERPRISE EXTENSION FOR [CUSTOMER NAME]"

I'd strongly encourage you to read both the policy language and the Spam FAQ.

Simeon - @dotproto

Chrome Extensions DevRel

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