Hi, I’m looking for guidance on whether a billing structure we’re planning satisfies requirement 1.2.1 before we build it.
Context:
We run a creator-marketing platform: brands sign up on our website, work with creators, and we charge the brand a small commission (3% of attributed sales + 1.5% service fee) when a creator drives a sale. Our Shopify app (unlisted, public) connects a brand’s store for order attribution and sample fulfillment. Brands can also use the platform with no Shopify store at all (Amazon/Meta channels).
The app is currently suspended under 1.2.1. In an earlier review round a reviewer instructed us to check the “I have approval to charge merchants outside of the Shopify Billing API” option; a later round correctly identified that we hold no such exemption. We are not requesting an exemption and we’re unchecking that option. We want to fix the structure itself.
The design we plan to build:
1. Shopify-origin installs (merchant finds/installs the app before having any account on our platform): on connect, the merchant is put on the Shopify Billing API, a $0 recurring app subscription with a usage-based line item and a merchant-approved capped amount. All our fees for these merchants are billed as usage records through Shopify. These merchants never reach our external (Stripe) billing flow, it is structurally unreachable for them, not just hidden.
2. Pre-existing platform customers (brand signed up on our website first, then later connects their Shopify store): their existing direct billing relationship with us continues unchanged.
3. The billing rail is fixed per merchant at connect time based on which relationship existed first: no switching, no choice presented in-app.
Questions:
1. Does this split satisfy 1.2.1 for an unlisted public app, with no exemption involved?
2. Where exactly is the “pre-existing customer” line for a free-signup platform? Is it enough that the account existed before the install, or does the merchant need a card on file / fees already paid before installing for direct billing to be acceptable?
3. For a Shopify-origin merchant, do fees arising from non-Shopify channels (e.g. our Amazon or Meta attribution for the same brand) also need to go through the usage line item? Our conservative default is yes, everything for that merchant goes through Shopify Billing, but we’d like to confirm whether 1.2.1’s scope is store-related charges or all charges to that merchant.
Thanks, we’d rather get this right in writing before building than iterate through review again.