Google is temporarily suspending paid Chrome extensions

Following a series of fraudulent transactions, Google is temporarily suspending paid Chrome extensions from the Google Chrome extension store. Developers that have already published paid extensions, subscriptions, or in-app purchases and had their listing removed for “Spam and placement in the store” can apply to be reinstated.

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.

As it stands, it’s clear that this is only a temporary measure and will not be around for the foreseeable future. Developers can still re-apply to have their extension published, but it’ll be a more hands-on approach and annoying for developers to release updates. Free add-ons are unaffected. Extensions on third-party platforms should also be fine, as this measure only affects Chrome’s web store.

The company did not reveal how the system was currently being abused, though the company has always tried to improve its review process. It would appear that whatever fraudulent activity had been occurring was enough to push the company to suspend all paid Chrome extensions temporarily.

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Via: 9to5Google

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