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I'm trying to register an Android Developer account for our company that we'll use to publish our company's apps to the market. So we don't want a account which is bound to a single developer.

But this statement which is displayed before paying the fee of $25 let me wonder if a developer account can be associated with a company at all.

Your registration fee enables you to publish software in the market. The name and billing address used to register will bind you to the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement. So make sure you double check!

If I understand this correctly, then this means that the person whose credit card is used to pay the fee will be the person how accept the developer agreement and therefore will be legal responsible for the apps that are published under this account.

If this is correct then this is not exactly what we want, as we cannot make one of our developer personal legal responsible for the company's product.

So what are our options to avoid this? How could the account be legally bound to the company instead. Or did we miss understand the whole statement?

Aziz Shaikh
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Flo
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  • Hey Flo, unfortunately this question is probably geared more for Android Market, and has nothing specifically to do with programming. On a side note, I would say the COMPANY needs to pay, and it needs to be registered in the COMPANYs name solely. Why would a developer pay for a license that is for a company? – Jack Nov 01 '11 at 14:47
  • Because the company is very new and doesn't have a credit card yet. – Flo Nov 01 '11 at 15:52
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    @Flo How did you solve this as I'm exactly in the same position as you 4 years later? :) Just curious – seb May 14 '15 at 13:48
  • @seb I am not seeing the same message posted by flo. It does not appear that the liability is tied to the cardholder, but to the account instead? It says "This is the Google account that will be associated with your Developer Console. If you would like to use a different account, you can choose from the following options below. If you are an organization, consider registering a new Google account rather than using a personal account." And at the bottom of the screen, "I agree and I am willing to associate my account registration with the Google Play Developer distribution agreement." – Kevin Lee Apr 26 '16 at 06:18
  • Anyway, what I did was to create a Wallet account first after signing into the company's google account (Google Checkout is deprecated). http://wallet.google.com/ There, you can specify your company name and company address for the account, while in the payment method, you can specify the cardholder name and the billing address. Notice that you can delete the payment method after creating the account as well. These things seem to suggest that the cardholder is decoupled from the account that takes on the liability. After that, sign up for the Google Developer Account and make the payment. – Kevin Lee Apr 26 '16 at 06:35

2 Answers2

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You need to create a google checkout account.

If you're interested in selling priced applications, you'll need to be registered as a Google Checkout Merchant as well. To do this from the Android Market publisher site:

This will take you to the Google Checkout site to sign up as a Merchant; you'll need to have information about your business handy to complete this step. Learn more about the requirements to be a Google Checkout Merchant.

Company Registration in Android Market

Community
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levis501
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  • Ok, but this still means that the person whose credit card was used to pay the registration fee is legally responsible for the apps published under this account? – Flo Nov 01 '11 at 17:24
  • According to http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html the Developer can be a company or an individual. Make an account for the company, with the company's name and address. Interesting idea about using a pre-paid debit card... if it works that makes things easy. – levis501 Nov 01 '11 at 17:48
  • Yes, a developer could be a company. But there's no option where I could set the address for a Google account. The only place a address is requested during registration is the address of the credit card holder. So I think we have to use a credit card for the registration whose holder is the company to register a company account. _Your registration fee enables you to publish software in the market. *The name and billing address used to register will bind you to the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement.*_ – Flo Nov 02 '11 at 08:06
  • In Google Checkout Merchant account .can it is possible in this account Free app Publish to get Downloading app charge paid by google to developer any cost provide by google to developer of Downloading app... – Amitsharma Apr 26 '14 at 07:29
  • @amitsharma ... Please start a new stackoverflow question – levis501 Apr 29 '14 at 14:08
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Go buy a prepaid debit card or something using company money, and use that to register as a developer. Keep the receipt for the prepaid debit card for record-keeping/auditing. Don't expect to ever get a receipt from Google for your 25 quid.

Pedantic
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  • Thanks for the idea, but my company is located in Germany and here there's nothing like a prepaid debit card. So unfortunately this is no option. – Flo Nov 02 '11 at 07:59
  • Also not having an invoice with company number is not an option if you want to put that on a company bill. :) – Kangur Sep 11 '18 at 15:38