Does anyone know if Apple condones the sharing of a single Apple ID amongst multiple employees? It appears that this is a common way to save on the cost of buying apps on the App Store. Example - Small business buys an app and installs it on one iPad. They then download the same app onto four other iPads (using the same Apple ID) and avoid having to pay for 4 additional licenses. As far as I can tell there is nothing illegal with this act. The customer has purchased one license and downloaded it onto five iPads. The only loser is the developer in that they lose out on the additional revenue from the customer having to buy 4 additional licenses.
Sharing an Apple ID Amongst Employees
This won't work very well for the employee's actual devices since they would need to change their Apple ID from the company Id to their personal Id and that's hard; not impossible, but hard.
But if a company has it's own devices, as you desccribe, then they could all be on the same Apple Id and the problem you describe is real. I limit my subscriptions to 5 devices under a single Apple Id and inform the user that if they own more than 5 devices they can use the Contact Us button to get more copies of the subscription. I do that through the ICloud key-value file. I left a note for App Review telling them about this and they never objected, although I do not know if they read it.
Apple policy, if I remember correctly, is that a business can have one device that is used by many employees or multiple devices used by the same employee but not multiple devices used by multiple employees so what you described is not condoned by Apple. I don't recall where I saw that 'policy'.
What you're describing is definitely against Apple policy. In effect, it's a site license for an app.
The situation that I was referring to was where a business uses a shared Apple ID to log into the App Store to download an app that has already been purchased by one individual. There doesn't appear to be any enforcment policy in place to prevent someone from logging into the App Store with this generic Apple ID and downloading the app onto as many iOS devices as they want. I believe Apple's end user agreement has a clause that does not allow this but I don't know how they would be able to monitor or enforce this policy. I only bring it up because I have run into this situation with several customers who have purchased our app and downloaded it on several devices using the same Apple ID.
Given you have specific examples, feel free to use the 'Contact Us' link below...'Report a Concern/Report a Fraud Concern'.
>customers who have purchased our app and downloaded it on several devices using the same Apple ID
This isn't nefarious until the number (aka "several") of devices exceeds something like 2 or 3. Many people have an iPad and an iPhone. Every 2 years many people will have 2 iPhones and an iPad. So 3 devices in any short period of time is expected; and adding 1 every 2 years is also expected. Beyond that you can trigger a 'Contact Us' for more copies.
> What you're describing is definitely against Apple policy. In effect, it's a site license for an app.
"(D)efinitely against Apple policy" - I would hope so - but 1) can you cite a reference to that Apple policy and 2) why does Apple not enforce that policy by preventing the hack referenced above (i.e. a company-wide Apple ID for all company devices to use - or at least a limit of 5 devices per year per Apple ID)?
I’m not referring to an individual who owns multiple iOS devices. He is entitled to download the app onto multiple devices. I’m referring to a business that buys five iPad devices and distributes them to five different employees but only pays for one copy of the app. My point is I don’t know how Apple can discern the difference between one person that owns five devices versus five different people using those same five devices and sharing the same Apple ID. I’m guessing from Apple’s perspective, there is no way to tell the difference and therefore there is not a way to monitor this policy.
Below is Apple’s Media Services Terms and Conditions. There is a section on app store content that references that multiple users requires a separate license. Interestingly, there is no mention of this policy in the end user license agreement.
Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions - https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/id/terms-en.html
Licensed Application End User License Agreement-
https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
You found it...."- Individuals acting on behalf of a commercial enterprise, governmental organization or educational institution (an “Enterprise”) may download and sync Apps for use by either ℹ a single individual on one or more devices owned or controlled by an Enterprise; or (ii) multiple individuals on a single shared device owned or controlled by an Enterprise. For the sake of clarity, each device used serially or collectively by multiple users requires a separate license."
So its against Apple policy but difficult to enforce. You can therefore reasonably limit the ability of any user to copy the app to multiple devices without first contacting you and explaining their needs. See my answer to your original post.