DPLA3.2(f)documented
3.2(f): ad creatives did not match the reviewed app, account flagged for termination
Documented case — built from an App Review message received in 2026. App details are anonymized; the outcome is reported as-is.
§ 01Problem
On September 30, 2026, the developer account received a Pending Termination Notice: the membership was found to have been used for dishonest or fraudulent activity, in violation of section 3.2(f) of the Developer Program License Agreement.
§ 02Apple rejection message
Pending Termination Notice Upon further review of the activity associated with your Apple Developer Program membership, it's been determined that your membership, or a membership associated with your account, has been used for dishonest or fraudulent activity, in violation of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement. Given the severity of the identified issues, all apps associated with your Apple Developer Program account have been removed from the App Store and your account has been flagged for removal. Because your account has been flagged for removal, any earnings payments are paused and app transfers are disabled. Creating new accounts after receiving this message may result in the termination of the new or associated accounts. Evidence of Dishonest or Fraudulent Activity App submissions from your account have engaged in concept or feature switch schemes to evade the review process, such as dynamically populating different app content after review, submitting apps with hidden features, repeatedly submitting misleading apps, and/or submitting apps with concrete references to content that you are not authorized to provide or is otherwise not appropriate for the App Store. Guidelines or Terms Violated The dishonest or fraudulent activity described above directly violates section 3.2(f) of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, which states: "You will not, directly or indirectly, commit any act intended to interfere with any of the Apple Software or Services, the intent of this Agreement, or Apple's business practices including, but not limited to, taking actions that may hinder the performance or intended use of the App Store, Custom App Distribution, TestFlight, Xcode Cloud, Ad Hoc distribution, or the Program (e.g., submitting fraudulent reviews of Your own Application or any third-party application, choosing a name for Your Application that is substantially similar to the name of a third-party application in order to create consumer confusion, or squatting on application names to prevent legitimate third-party use). Further, You will not engage, or encourage others to engage, in any unlawful, unfair, misleading, fraudulent, improper, or dishonest acts or business practices relating to Your Covered Products or Corresponding Products (e.g., engaging in bait-and-switch pricing, consumer misrepresentation, deceptive business practices, or unfair competition against other developers)."
§ 03App background
The app acquired users through paid campaigns attributed with Adjust. The ad creatives showed content that was different from what Apple saw in the app during review.
§ 04What we initially suspected
The notice names no app, no creative, and no code path. The first instinct is to search the code for a hidden switch or remote config, because that is what an “A/B package” usually means.
§ 05Diagnosis
The team’s conclusion after the audit: the problem was the ad creatives, not a review switch. The ads publicly showed content the reviewed build did not show, and Apple read that as a concept or feature switch — content that changes after review. Both “dynamically populating different app content after review” and “concrete references to content … not appropriate for the App Store” in the notice can be triggered by the gap between ads and review.
§ 06What was changed
- Paused every campaign whose creative did not match the reviewed build, keeping the creative and campaign records
- Audited attribution callbacks, deep links, and remote config to confirm nothing switches content by source
- Built a creative-by-creative comparison against the reviewed build for the appeal
- Added a creative approval rule: every creative must be reproducible in the current approved build
§ 07What was not changed
- No new developer account was created
- No apps were transferred to another account
- No campaign or configuration history was deleted
§ 08Reply to Apple
The appeal states that some Adjust-attributed creatives showed content not present in the reviewed version; those campaigns were paused, the app was confirmed not to switch content by attribution, region, or review status, and a creative approval process tied to the approved build was introduced.
§ 09Result
Per the notice: all apps on the account were removed from the App Store, the account was flagged for removal, earnings payments were paused, and app transfers were disabled. The appeal is the only remaining route; its outcome is not recorded on this page yet.
§ 10Lessons learned
- Apple judges the product users actually see, and ads are part of that product.
- Every creative must be reproducible in the current approved build, or it becomes evidence of an A/B package.
- Attribution data is for measurement, not for showing different content to different sources.
- Do not open a new account after the notice. It only puts associated accounts at risk.