Individual Developer Account — Non-Personal Entity Name as Publisher Eligibility (Policy 10.14) and Support Access

Policy 10.14 requires a Company account when a reasonable consumer would interpret either the application name or publisher name as belonging to a business entity, even if the name represents only a future idea and the application is free and open source.^1^

Publisher eligibility

The deciding factor is the customer-facing impression, not whether the organization:

• is incorporated or otherwise legally registered;
• currently earns revenue;
• has a payout or tax profile; or
• publishes proprietary rather than open-source software.

Therefore:

• Keep the organization-style publisher name: publish through a Company account.
• Keep the Individual account: change the publisher display name so a reasonable consumer would understand that the publisher is an individual rather than a business entity.

Policy 10.14 also states that Individual accounts are generally appropriate for one developer working independently, while Company accounts require identity or business verification information.^1^

To inspect the current details, open Partner Center → Settings (gear icon) → Account settings → Developer. The Account details section shows the account type, while Contact info shows the publisher display name and provides an Update option for editable contact information.^2^

Do not submit under the organization-style name merely because the existing Individual account currently accepts that display name. Account enrollment and product-policy compliance are separate checks.

Support route for an Individual/MSA account

Use the documented MSA users Dev Center support route rather than the work-account or generic Engage Center route:

1. Open the official MSA support link:
   https://engagecenter.microsoft.com/f8cdef31-a31e-4b4a-93e4-5f571e91255a/#view/Microsoft_AzureCXP_EngageHub/EngageHubMenu.MenuView/targetExperience/sfb/sapId/bc9d4067-7218-61b9-1d2c-68ae591acf9d
2. Sign in with the same personal Microsoft account associated with the Store developer account.
3. If prompted, select Sign in to Microsoft’s tenant for Personal Users or Login to personal tenant.
4. On the second welcome screen, select Login Engage Center.
5. Create a Dev Center support case under Partner Center account management and include:
   • that the account type is Individual;
   • the proposed publisher display name;
   • that the name represents an unregistered future organization;
   • a request for confirmation of Policy 10.14 eligibility or account-conversion requirements.

Microsoft’s Windows developer support page explicitly provides separate Dev Center links for Entra ID and MSA users.^3^ The MSA sign-in documentation also confirms the personal-tenant login sequence, while noting that native MSA login is being retired and has restrictions.^4^

If the MSA-specific link still shows “No Access”

Engage Center access depends on the workspace and permissions available to the signed-in account; its general support model is workspace-based.^5^ Capture the full “No Access” page and add it to a Microsoft Q&A post under the Partner Center/Store publishing area, but do not post account identifiers or personal verification documents publicly.

The onboarding email [Email] is not the appropriate fallback for this existing account: Microsoft limits that inbox to problems with the new zero-fee Individual developer onboarding process. Existing-account management and app-submission issues are directed to the developer support-ticket route.^6^

For an actual app-certification failure, rather than this pre-submission account-policy question, the documented certification contact is [Email].^3^

References

1. Microsoft Store Policies
2. Manage a Microsoft Marketplace account in Partner Center
3. Help and guidance for Windows developers
4. Microsoft account (MSA) users in Microsoft Engage Center
5. Microsoft Engage Center FAQs | Microsoft Learn
6. Free developer registration for individual developers