My app rejected under Guideline 5.6 for “Developer Code of Conduct”

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Hello everyone,

I’m looking for advice from developers who have experienced a similar App Store rejection under Guideline 5.6 – Developer Code of Conduct.

My app is called Al-Saqar. It is a specialized marketplace and auction platform for falconry enthusiasts.

The app includes:

Falcon listings and physical product sales
Falcon food and accessories
Real-world falcon auctions
Live auction viewing and bidding
Falcon farms and clinics directory
Search and filtering
User accounts and account deletion

All products and auction items are physical goods. There are no digital goods or subscriptions being sold through the app.

For auctions, users can view the auction and watch the bids. To participate, they need to complete identity verification and pay a security deposit. The deposit and final payment are handled outside the app through our support team and bank transfer because these are real-world, high-value transactions.

Apple rejected the app under Guideline 5.6 with the following message:

“We've identified a pattern of unusual behavior with the app that is commonly associated with fraudulent activity. Specifically, the app contains features that appear to have been intentionally hidden during the review process.”

The problem is that Apple did not identify which feature, screen, account state, or behavior they believe was hidden.

There are no hidden features intended to be shown only to normal users. The functionality available to users is the same functionality available during review.

I have already tried to clarify this with Apple and provided additional information and a screen recording demonstrating the functionality on a real device. I have also submitted an App Review Board appeal, but I am still trying to understand what could be triggering this rejection.

Another thing I noticed is that the review appears to have happened extremely quickly, which makes me wonder whether some automated detection or account/runtime behavior could be involved. I obviously cannot confirm that this is the case.

I have been trying to publish this app since August 18, 2026, and I have now reached a point where I don't know what I should actually change because Apple has not identified the specific issue.

Has anyone experienced this exact Guideline 5.6 rejection, especially the wording about:

“features that appear to have been intentionally hidden during the review process”

and successfully resolved it?

If so, I would really appreciate knowing:

What was actually causing the rejection?
Did Apple eventually identify the specific feature or behavior?
Was it related to remote configuration, server-side logic, feature flags, account states, device/region checks, dynamic content, or third-party SDKs?
Did contacting Apple Support or requesting an App Review appointment help?
Did you need to submit an appeal, or did a new build eventually resolve the issue?

I am not looking to bypass App Review. I simply want to understand what Apple is detecting so I can fix the actual problem instead of making random changes and repeatedly submitting builds.

Any experience or advice from developers who have gone through the same situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Answer 1

limoumou OP

4w

My situation is very similar to yours.

This was my first App Store submission. Two days after submission, I received a Guideline 2.1 rejection almost immediately. I provided the requested information and waited about a week. I was then rejected under Guideline 5.6 for allegedly having hidden functionality.

I carefully reviewed the entire app again and removed any redundant code and anything that could potentially be interpreted as hidden functionality. I resubmitted the app, but three days later it was rejected again under Guideline 5.6, and the rejection happened almost immediately.

At that point, instead of simply resubmitting again, I replied to the review team and specifically requested a phone call to discuss the issue.

Three days later, Apple replied with the following:

“We have determined that the App Review Guideline 5.6.4 issue that was previously identified is addressed.”

They then asked me to submit a new binary so they could continue the review.

I’m a little confused about why the issue suddenly became specifically 5.6.4. My impression is that the previous 5.6 rejections may have been triggered by an automated review or risk-detection system. It seems that I had to request direct communication with the review team and have the issue handled manually before I could move forward.

Otherwise, I felt like simply removing code and resubmitting would just result in another 5.6 rejection.

I’m not sure whether the previous rejections were entirely automated, but based on the timing and the way the case progressed, it definitely feels like there was some kind of automated or risk-based screening involved.