Can't we have a donation link in the app description any more?

I uploaded a new app, with the following "standard" text in the description:

"If you like the DF you can thank me by sending a beer: https://paypal.me/GavrielF or https://buymeacoffee.com/flocsy or at least write a positive review with 5 stars ."

The app was rejected with the following "reason":

"Thank you for submitting Foo Datafield to the Connect IQ store. After reviewing your submission, we have decided not to approve the app for the following reasons:

Since this app requests payment, please indicate payment is required in the app submission form or remove the requests for donations/tips from your app description.

This is a change in our policy regarding what is considered a paid app to comply with EU Digital Services Act requirements."

English is not my native language, so please help me! Either I or someone in Garmin needs an English lesson. Does "If you like, you can send me ..." sound like "this app requests a payment"? Won't we be able to include link to donation any more?

This is a free app, sending a donation is totally optional and has no effect on the functionality of the app. The sentence is copy & pasted from my other, existing free apps.

Top Replies

flocsy🤠 over 1 year ago +2

Can someone from Garmin clarify this?

All Replies

flocsy🤠 over 1 year ago

Can someone from Garmin clarify this?

Brandon.ConnectIQ over 1 year ago in reply to flocsy🤠

flocsy🤠 We've had to make some shifts to our policies in order to be compliant with the Digital Services Act, as described in the rejection message you received. I am not a lawyer, but we have been advised by the Garmin legal team that any app that requires or requests any kind of payment in the app listing on our store, which includes tips and donations, must be flagged "Payment Required."

We haven't updated our policies on developer.garmin.com to reflect this yet, and we're discussing some changes to the store that will provide some nuance to those asking for tips vs. those that actually require payment to use their app. At this time, the only mechanism we have in place is the Payment Required flag.

We'll be auditing existing apps for this at some point, but for now, we're enforcing this policy change on any new app submissions.

flocsy🤠 over 1 year ago in reply to Brandon.ConnectIQ

What about Komoot: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/d918ae1e-9e7b-4fdf-b336-46141a0ccd6a
or Spotify: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/30c6c876-ba43-4cbb-b4c7-03583a7cb66b
They are deffinitely and always were in the category that payment is required (komoot can be used for free, but Spotify not even for 1 minute) How come they are not listed as payment required? Even with the old standards it's required...

ReedWorks over 1 year ago in reply to Brandon.ConnectIQ

Just a thought - I believe the 'Required' word scares away users who would be perfectly happy with the free functions offered. In many cases it is not required, but optional. Do the legal guys insist on 'Required', or could there be a distinction between really required and something less intimidating?

flocsy🤠 over 1 year ago in reply to ReedWorks

Brandon wrote that they are working on it... Considering that this started almost 2 months ago, we got the official email about it from Garmin about a month ago... we might even get some answer this year...

bine8x8 over 1 year ago in reply to flocsy🤠

Most likely the answer will be in May, but not necessarily this (or even next) year.

flocsy🤠 over 1 year ago in reply to bine8x8

TitanicTurtle over 1 year ago in reply to flocsy🤠

Sorry for offtopic but I really wonder what kind of emails most devs are getting. I haven't received any in which this topic was addressed, nor anything related to developers.
Do you have to sign up for that somewhere? I only get the normal update emails about newly released devices and stuff like that, but nothing more.
I registered here sometime last year, but got nothing so far: www.garmin.com/.../

flocsy🤠 over 1 year ago in reply to TitanicTurtle

Besides the regular user's update emails (like some devices are 20% off or new devices, etc) I only get notifications about certain topics in the forum (including the Announcements) You can subscribe to any topic by clicking the "Turn Reply notifications on" (Actually maybe some forum threads are configured a bit differently). There was an email "We’ve Updated Our Terms of Use" on the 1st Mar about the changes that took effect on 17th Feb...

TitanicTurtle over 1 year ago in reply to flocsy🤠

Thank you, then it's okay. I thought there were more, I hadn't received the email about the Developer Awards 2023 either.

Well, let's wait until there's an official announcement on the subject. I can imagine that this would be important for many people who don't just do it as a hobby or as a side hussle.
The topic seems to be approached rather laxly if you look at some of the new releases.