All Paid Extension on Chrome Has Been Suspended

Google has confirmed that all commercial, paid for, extensions have been temporarily suspended from being published or updated in the Chrome Web Store. A “significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users” has been cited as the reason.

What does this mean to users? Well, any Chrome extension that is offered on a commercial basis, be that a one-off fee, a subscription or even has in-app purchases, will no longer be updated while the ban is in place. New commercial extensions will not be allowed to publish to the Chrome Web Store. Existing extensions will still work but extension developers “can’t push new updates.”

Currently, it is unclear as to how long this temporary ban will last. Google has so far only stated that it is “working to resolve this as quickly as possible,” but does “not have a resolution timeline at the moment.”