Google Play’s new developer verification policy affects the developer account status abnormality will lead to the suspension of merchant in-app purchase payments

This is GGZC, a website that provides exclusive knowledge and information to Google developers around the world.Looking back at the development history of Google Play in the past five years, the problems encountered by Google Play developers can be described as endless. The Google Play Console before September 2023 and after September 2023 are two different worlds.Prior to this, Google Play’s control was relatively easy. You could publish apps in batches at will (register and open multiple developer accounts to publish similar and duplicate apps), and the developer account and app would be online in the Google Play store for more than half a year. Except for particularly serious app problems, the app would not be easily suspended or the developer account would not be terminated.

When APP release is relatively easy and stable, the most common problem with Google Play Console is the freezing of in-app purchase revenue (payment information suspension) and other situations.

Before June 2024 (before the new version of developer account verification is fully implemented), in-app purchase merchant accounts will be frozen and payments will be suspended only in the following three situations:

Third-party verification in a specific country/region fails, such as Brazil verification, Singapore verification, and Europe verification

Google Payments merchant payment information is suspended by risk control (requires verification of payment method photo, bill, verification code + identity proof of account information, payment method statement + identity proof of account information), or separate verification of identity document information. Reference topic link: Google Payments verification

Then there is the issue of merchant payment withholding that occurred in late 2022. For this, you need to wait for the system to automatically evaluate the account. If there is an abnormality, you need to explain the details of the merchant account activity. For reference, please refer to the link: Google Play Merchant Account Your payments have been held，Interpret recent account activity details

Before this, even if the Google Play developer account was terminated, there was a way to get the in-app purchase revenue, as long as there was no abnormal prompt in the upper right corner of the in-app purchase payment information, as shown in the figure below.

If the unfortunate prompt “Contact us about your payments account status” appears, it means that the merchant’s payment has been withheld and you need to contact Google Support.

Here is a recent historical legacy case. The Google Play developer account was terminated two years ago, and the merchant’s in-app purchase payments were also frozen at the time. Because of the payment information risk control suspension issue mentioned above, the last balance was not withdrawn.

The case developer had approached many professionals to solve the problem of the suspension of suspicious activity in the payment information, but all failed. After GGZC took over and handled it, the suspension of suspicious activity verification was solved smoothly. The verification prompt and suspension disappeared afterwards, but the merchant’s payment information was still abnormal.

We contacted Google Payments merchant team support and got the following response: After checking your payment merchant profile, we can confirm that since you have fully verified your account, the previous freeze in your payment merchant profile has been lifted. However, we can confirm that there is a specific freeze in your account, which is a developer verification issue. Then a form for contacting developers for verification issues was given, as shown below.

Before this (before contacting the merchant support team), GGZC had already contacted the developer verification support form. After waiting for 4 working days, the reply we received was as follows: We are sorry to learn that your account has been terminated. Our dedicated policy support team can help you. This means that we should appeal the terminated developer account first, and then complete the new version of developer verification after the appeal is successful. Only after the verification is passed can the merchant payment freeze be lifted! As shown below.

If the developer of this case had found us a year ago, this would not have been a failure!

The developer account of a year ago was not affected by the new version verification status for in-app purchase payments. What was most unexpected was that Google actually imposed new version account restrictions on old version developers who had been banned for several years!

$200,000 frozen loss, no justice! Although we have seen too many cases of hundreds of thousands of dollars being frozen in the past few years, many of which have not been resolved to this day. But this case is an exception because it was originally just an ordinary case of abnormal freezing of suspicious payment information activities.

At this time, GGZC was also frustrated because no developer actually got the frozen balance. Although we solved the problem of suspended verification of its virtual payment card, due to the verification problem of the developer’s new version, the withheld balance could not be obtained, and the agreed service fee could not be redeemed.

The above case is an exclusive case and summary of the GGZC website. Any form of reprinting, plagiarism and plagiarism is prohibited!

There are still ways to circumvent the risks of this case. If necessary, you can contact us for paid consultation.

Here are some other services or information that may be of interest to you:

A guide to Google Developer registration, security risks, tax collection and verification issues

Subscription membership activation and related conditions

About GGZC , If you have any ideas, you can post them on:GG Developer Community