A newly launched app appears to have copied almost everything from our app listing, including the listing content, pricing structure, and even the listing images.
I understand that apps in the same category may have similar features, but copying the entire presentation, wording, pricing, and visuals feels unfair to teams who have spent years building, testing, and improving their product and brand.
Has anyone faced something similar before? Would this be considered a violation of Shopify’s app listing or partner policies, and what is the right way to report or handle this?
PS: ho! Not only the listing. Every word inside the app as well.
The same thing happened to and Shopify didn’t do anything except make me jump hoops.
At first they tell me to contact partner support, then partner support told me to submit my request through their DMCA link, then the legal team said they couldn’t find my original content in their listing, even though they even copied white spaces and grammatical errors.
TLDR Shopify is 99% likely to play blind. Depend on your app revenue and your competitor size, you should probably just hire a lawyer and submit a formal cease and desist letter.
In my case I got lucky because my competitor app is just bad, and their existence makes my niche less attractive to new comers. The one losing in this situation is actually the Shopify app store.
Thank you for sharing this @David_Arbias. This is honestly worrying, but also helpful to know what to expect. The fact that even typos and spacing were copied in your case and still it became difficult to get action is concerning.
When copy-paste apps are allowed to exist without action, it is not just the original developers who lose, but the quality and trust of the Shopify App Store as a whole.
Running into the same issue now. Somebody copying my app listing 1:1, undercutting prices by 1 cent. I will report it as a partner violation @Liam-Shopify
Just noticed now they use the name of a Finnish publicly listed AI company, but it’s not them. I know partners can just enter any address, but copying apps and using false company information, that should get you a slap on the wrist, right?
Same thing happened to me in the past. Unfortunately, there’s not really much you can do unless you want to spend a fortune going through the courts. Shopify will wash their hands of it pretty quickly. Other than that, you’ve just got to remember they’re a loser who can’t come up with their own ideas.
What worries me the most is that they have zero reviews, no Built for Shopify status (obviously) and they still rank #1 in the app store for one of the most important keywords. With my app being downgraded to 2nd place, while I did all the hard work getting reviews and getting BfS status.
I don’t think it’s ever been proven, but I do think new apps get a bit of a boost initially. I wouldn’t worry too much though. Users will generally still go with the more established, better-reviewed app, even if it isn’t sitting at number one.
Alternatively, they may have simply spent the time they didn’t need to spend coming up with an original app idea on getting their search terms, listing, etc. just right.
What you’ll most likely see next is the new app suddenly start getting some outrageous number of reviews every week. These will almost certainly be fake. It’s the classic pattern: copy an app, pump it full of fake reviews, then overtake the original, legitimate app with a worse version.
Pretty much exactly what’s described here (in this joke tweet):
And I know Shopify isn’t just sitting on the side-lines applauding what’s happening, but it’s frustrating that this has been going on for years without (much) improvement. Whenever Shopify does a round of deleting reviews they don’t think are worthy, they let the fake reviews untouched and remove the reviews we as app developers have worked hard for.
