Our developer account with $33680 MRR was removed by Apple
My name is Viktor Seraleev, and I live in Chile. I am the founder of Sarafan Mobile Limited (team ID G5293S9UFX). For several years, we have been creating photo/video applications for content creators.
On September 21st 2023, Apple closed our company’s account. At the time of closure, our company had 1209 active trials, $33680 MRR, and $108878 in arrears for the last 3 months. More details about this story can be found here: bit.ly/sarafan-apple
Along with the publication of this article, we filed a pretrial claim against Apple. Our story gained over 500k views on Twitter and became the number one news on Hacker News. Thanks to this, Apple voiced the reason for the closure and agreed to release the frozen funds.
The reason for the closure was the connection to a previously closed associated account. At the moment, my lawyers are finalizing the lawsuit, so I want to tell you more about the reasons for the blocking of my accounts.
Let me start by saying that until October 2020, I used the Softeam account. I had a growing application that, within 6 months, grew from $200 to $25k. It was a useful app for the beauty industry in the photo/video niche. In October 2020, I signed an agreement to sell the application and happily applied to open a new company, Sarafan. So, I ended up with 2 accounts.
Until August 2023, I had never used the Softeam account, just paid $99/year. I was reluctant to part with it; it was part of pleasant memories. When applying for a small business account, I mentioned having a related account. And even the developers in these accounts were the same.
In August 2023, we decided it was time to learn Swift UI, as all our previous applications were written in UIKit. We allocated 2 weeks of work time, chose a simple application, and got to work. We decided to create our version of the popular game “Never Have I Ever.” Why this one? This app could be made without a backend, no need to connect RenderCore. AI helped create questions and generate images for them. So, we could train well in implementing interface tasks.
On August 19, the application was ready. Since the application was in no way related to the photo/video theme, I decided that my old account would be perfect for it. I didn’t see any reason to worry.
We got rejected. Apple stated that we were using the same binary files, metadata, and/or concept as applications previously submitted with a closed Apple Developer Program account. I attach a screenshot.
I proposed a list of changes, but after 2 days, Apple decided to remove the application and close the Softeam account. The same sanctions followed for the Sarafan Mobile account after 40 minutes.
I still believe that the App Review team made a simple human error. They were guided by:
— My old account had been inactive for many years.
— The niche we chose for the application is probably popular among scammers.
— An App Review team specialist saw visual similarities with a previously removed application (about which I couldn’t have known).
For 8 months, I tried to prove that we developed the application from scratch. I provided the App Review team with screenshots of Trello tasks, Git, screenshots from personal correspondence. I uploaded the entire design change history from Figma. I provided a plagiarism analysis report from the Copyleaks service. Also, three different companies made their own conclusions after studying all our source files.
Last answer from Apple (April 10 2024):
On behalf of Apple Inc. (“Apple”), I write in response to your letter dated February 20, 2024, regarding [client entity names] (collectively, the “Developer Accounts”) and the supplemental documentation. Apple has reviewed your letter and the documentation provided and, having considered that material, declines to reinstate the Developer Accounts.
As Apple has explained in our prior correspondence, Apple retains the right — and exercises its ability — to terminate developer accounts and remove apps at its discretion to protect its users. Developers and consumers alike benefit from Apple’s exercise of this discretion. It ensures a curated, safe, and trusted App Store experience for users, which attracts more users to the platform — to the benefit of developers. [Clients] all agreed to Apple’s exercise of discretion when they signed their agreements with Apple, including the Apple Developer Agreement, the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, and Schedule 2 of the DPLA. Pursuant to the terms of those agreements, Apple properly exercised its discretion to terminate the developer accounts at-issue, and none of the submissions support reinstatement of those accounts.
The maximum penalties were applied to my company just because we decided to learn Swift UI. Be cautious when developing new applications; don’t use old accounts; it can be dangerous for your business.
