On October 16, Apple added guideline 2.3.14 to its App Review Guidelines, covering App Store creative assets. The text says they “should not include inappropriate content, references to other apps with an intent to mislead, unverifiable product claims, or specific or discounted pricing information.” Creative assets, per the guideline, “can be used across the App Store, including the product page header and in search results”; Apple’s best-practices page places them in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 and later.
What is App Store guideline 2.3.14?
Guideline 2.3.14 is a new rule in the App Review Guidelines for creative assets, the new image and video assets Apple promoted to developers in an October 5 post. It requires them to pertain to the app’s content and functionality or its overarching brand, to be appropriate for all audiences, and says they should not include specific or discounted pricing information or unverifiable product claims. Apple’s changelog describes it in one line: “New guideline covering creative assets.”
Seasonal offerings are pitched, price figures are excluded
Apple’s October 5 post told developers to use creative assets “to highlight your brand, promote seasonal offerings, showcase new content, and more.” It also described the Asset Library, where you “can submit creative assets for approval today to use in a future seasonal campaign, then immediately use them once you’re ready.”
Eleven days later, 2.3.14 set the line in the review text. A holiday asset can still promote the seasonal offering itself, but under 2.3.14 it should not carry the figure: on our reading, “50% off” or a price in the header image falls under “specific or discounted pricing information”.
Teams that banked holiday assets before October 16 should check them against 2.3.14 themselves. Apple’s pages do not say whether pre-approved assets are re-checked when they go live, and they give no effective date. We would not read that silence either way.
PPC Land reported the rule on October 18. We checked everything below against Apple’s own pages.
Guideline text versus best-practices page
The pricing exclusion is not new as advice. Apple’s asset best-practices page already told developers not to include pricing in an archived copy from August 10, the earliest we found. What changed on October 16 is that, for creative assets, pricing and unverifiable claims now sit in the guideline text itself. We cannot show how review used the best-practices page before, so we make no claim about enforcement.
2.3.14 names fewer exclusions than the best-practices page does. What the guideline says, in Apple’s text:
- Assets “must pertain to your app’s content and functionality or overarching brand”.
- They must “follow standard metadata guidelines, and be appropriate for all audiences”.
- They “should not include inappropriate content, references to other apps with an intent to mislead, unverifiable product claims, or specific or discounted pricing information”.
- “Read App Store asset best practices for detailed guidance on acceptable recommendations.”
What the best-practices page says. Pricing, discounts and unverifiable claims overlap with 2.3.14; website URLs, copyright symbols, the awards example, other-platform logos, Apple-designated recognitions and the 4+ rating are not named in the guideline:
- “Don’t include specific pricing, discounts, website URLs, copyright symbols.”
- “Avoid claims that can’t be verified, such as awards or recognition that your app or game hasn’t actually received.”
- “Don’t include logos or references to other platforms or marketplaces.”
- A request not to include any “Apple-designated recognitions”, such as Editor’s Choice.
- “Assets displayed on the App Store must meet a 4+ age rating, even if your app’s rating is higher”. 2.3.14 does not say 4+. It says “appropriate for all audiences”, the phrase 2.3.8 uses before asking that icons, screenshots and previews adhere to a 4+ age rating.
2.3.14 covers creative assets only. Guideline 2.3.7, the same in the October 15 capture and on the live page, separately says that metadata “such as app names, subtitles, screenshots, and previews should not include prices, terms, or descriptions that are not specific to the metadata type.”
Our diff of the guidelines page against Wayback
We compared Apple’s live page, “Last Updated: October 16, 2026”, with a Wayback capture from October 15 (11:37 UTC, “Last Updated: June 8, 2026”). Findings:
- 2.3.14: new text, absent on October 15.
- 2.5.19: new. The hidden-features sentence was removed from the start of 2.3.1(a) and moved here.
- 3.1.1(a): “a website the developer owns or maintains responsibility for” became “a permitted destination”, and the Music Streaming Services bullet was folded into the StoreKit bullet. The entitlement still exists “where permitted”.
- Section 5: “appropriate authorities will be notified” was already on the page on October 15. The added wording says the apps “will be removed from the App Store and blocked from alternative distribution.”
- Before You Submit: beyond added links, there is a new item, “Provide required documentation for apps and features that require regulatory approval.” The changelog says only “Added links to additional documentation.”
Apple’s explanatory safety post covers 3 of the changelog’s 7 items (1.2, 2.5.19 and Section 5). It does not mention creative assets. Apple says translations will be available “within one month”, and none of the pages we read gives an effective date. A capture taken at 20:52 UTC on October 16 still showed the old date, so we do not state a go-live time.
What to check in your holiday assets
- Search every banked header and search-result asset for a price, a percentage or a “sale” figure, and for award or recognition claims you cannot document.
- Take the number out, and check any remaining sale or discount wording against the best-practices page, which lists “discounts” separately from “specific pricing”. Apple’s October 5 post pitched “seasonal offerings” and does not mention sales.
- Compare against the best-practices list above, since URLs, © symbols and other-platform logos are not in 2.3.14 but are on that page.
For another Apple policy change aimed at the same developer audience, see our piece on Apple’s alternative ATT prompt in the EU. For a contrast on how markdown pricing reaches AI agents in another channel, see Shopify compare-at prices and AI agents.
