1. The baseline: accounts are per Google Account, and several of them are expressly contemplated. Play Console developer accounts are registered one to a Google Account, which is why the help centre hands you the mechanical answer for a second account: to change the currency of your account "you'll need to create a new Play Console account using a different email address" - and after you create it, "our support team can transfer your apps to your new account" (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9023898). Holding several accounts with one legal entity is not a grey area; it is in Google's own FAQ: "Can I use one DUNS number to register or verify multiple developer accounts? Could one DUNS number be used to create 5-7 developer accounts? Yes, you can create multiple developer accounts using one DUNS number." (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/13634888)
2. Google already has a vocabulary for the relationship, and it is worth learning it verbatim. Since the week of June 7, 2021 Play Console has contained an Associated developer accounts page (Developer account > Associated developer accounts) whose stated purpose is to "help us understand the Developer Accounts that you're associated with" (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10627869). The glossary on that page defines: Account Group - "The account in Play Console to which all Your Associated Developer Accounts (ADAs) belong"; Associated Developer Accounts (ADAs) - "All Developer Accounts that You own", plus "Any Developer Account owned by Your Subsidiary that publishes any Product that uses the same or similar Brand Features as Your Brand Features", plus, where the entity that controls both you and your affiliates is not itself a developer on Play Console, any affiliate account publishing products with the same or similar brand features (such accounts count as either yours or the affiliate's, but not both); Affiliate - "Any entity that, directly or indirectly, Controls You, is Controlled by You, or is under another entity's common Control with You"; Control - "Owning 50% or more of the voting rights or ownership interests in the legal entity"; Subsidiary - "The legal entity(ies) that You Control"; Primary Developer Account - "The ADA that's designated as the administrator of the Account Group".
3. The declaration mechanics, and what they are actually for. You create the Account Group on that page "using the full legal name of your organization (for example, Google LLC)"; the account you use to create it becomes the Primary Developer Account and "anyone with admin access to the Primary Developer Account will be able to manage the Account Group". ADAs are declared by "their developer account ID, or the package name of one of their apps", and admins of every added account "will receive a Play Console notification asking them to accept or reject your request" - "Your Account Group will not be complete until all of your ADAs consent to belonging to it." A Developer Account can be in only one Account Group at a time and moves by leaving first. The carrot is stated plainly: "Creating an Account Group is required to enroll in the 15% service fee tier", and the page is only available to developers who have a payments profile. The boundary is stated equally plainly: "No one, including the Primary Developer Account of the group, gets any access to financial data, the ability to publish apps or updates on other accounts on the group, or similar permissions, unless the admins of the individual Developer Accounts explicitly add or adjust the account users or permissions." Your Account Group name and the primary account's contact email are visible to the other accounts in the group; the group is never shown to users on Google Play.
4. Sharing one payments profile is the sanctioned way a set of accounts becomes one identity. "To create a new or verify an existing Play Console developer account, you must create or select a payments profile. This profile verifies your identity. Payment profiles can either be for individuals or organizations. Only the organization's payment profile can be shared with multiple people. If your organization has multiple developer accounts that share the same identity details, you may want to consider reusing the same payments profile across these accounts to simplify the verification process." The sanctioned route is a three-step flow: each Play Console account owner must be made an admin of the payments profile (Google payments center > Settings > Payments users > Manage payments users > Add new user > "Admin with all permissions"), each must accept the invitation sent from payments-noreply@google.com, and each then selects that profile when verifying in Play Console (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/14177239). Read the accompanying warning as part of the same fact: "Make sure you understand the implications of sharing a payment profile with other people before adding them as admins. Granting admin access means they may be able to use the payment details that are part of the payment profile." In other words, the shared payments profile is simultaneously the easiest way to satisfy verification and the strongest identity link Google holds between your accounts.
5. Where the association becomes a liability: the policy text says so twice, in one paragraph. "Repeated or serious violations (such as malware, fraud, and apps that may cause user or device harm) of these policies or the Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA) will result in termination of individual or related Google Play Developer accounts." And, under the description of a suspension: "Suspensions count as strikes against the good standing of your Google Play Developer account. Multiple strikes can result in the termination of individual and related Google Play Developer accounts." (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/17105854)
6. The contractual side, in the Developer Distribution Agreement. §10.3: Google "may terminate this Agreement with You immediately upon written notice or with thirty (30) days prior written notice if required under applicable law if (a) You have breached any provision of this Agreement, any non-disclosure agreement, or other agreement relating to Google Play or the Android platform; (b) Google is required to do so by law; (c) You cease being an authorized developer, a developer in good standing, or are barred from using Android software; (d) Google decides to no longer provide Google Play; or (e) You or Your Product pose a potential risk for economic, reputational, or security-related harm to Google, users, or other third-party partners." It adds: "Where allowed under applicable law, Google may also terminate this Agreement with You for any reason with thirty (30) days prior written notice." §11.1 is the clause operators most often overlook, because it forbids the pure-holding-company arrangement: "You represent and warrant that You have all Intellectual Property Rights in and to Your Product(s), including the right to monetize Your Product(s) on your own behalf and not solely acting as an agent or appointee on behalf of any other person." (§https://play.google/developer-distribution-agreement.html)
7. What a termination actually does to the neighbouring accounts. "After your developer account was terminated, all of your apps are removed from Google Play, and the users, statistics, and ratings associated with those apps are forfeited. Also, you will be unable to publish new apps. If your account was terminated for violating the Developer Distribution Agreement, we're unable to accept future apps from you, so don't register for a new Play Console account. Additionally, any related accounts will be permanently suspended, and any new accounts that you try to open will be terminated without a refund of the developer registration fee." The same page removes the assumption of a warning: "By publishing your apps on Google Play, you agree to follow Google Play Developer Program Policies and the Developer Distribution Agreement. Google is not required to send you a warning prior to suspending or terminating your account." And it sets the bar for getting it back: "Our support team can only reinstate a Play Console account if an error was made, and it's determined that your account and apps don't violate our Developer Distribution Agreement." Appeals are filed at §https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/troubleshooter/2993242, and support answers only in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9023898).
8. The signals Google says it weighs, and the reason a clean account can still be swept up. Enforcement Process: "When reviewing content or accounts to determine whether they are illegal or violate our policies, we take various information into consideration when making a decision, including app metadata (for example, app title, description), in-app experience, account information (for example, past history of policy violations), any third-party code in apps, and other information provided through reporting mechanisms (where applicable) and own-initiative reviews." Two follow-on sentences matter for portfolio operators: "removal or administrative notices may not indicate each and every policy violation present in your account, app, or broader app catalog", and a failure to clean the remainder "may result in additional enforcement actions" (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/17105854).
9. What turns a second account into ban avoidance. The documented case is re-registration after a DDA termination ("don't register for a new Play Console account"; "any new accounts that you try to open will be terminated without a refund of the developer registration fee"). A second, more useful pattern is where the policy itself is written at the level of the account set - the Pakistan digital-lending rule: "Each Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) lender can only publish one Digital Lending App (DLA). Developers who attempt to publish more than one DLA per NBFC risk the termination of their developer account and any other associated accounts" (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/17105854). The violation is committed by the operator, and the penalty is priced across every account the operator holds.
10. Legitimate reasons to hold more than one account - each with an official flow attached. Changing the account currency requires a new Play Console account on a different email address, with a support-assisted app transfer afterwards. Organization-to-individual conversion is not supported in place: "you must create a new developer account for an individual and complete verifications for that account type. Once you have verified the new account, you will be able to transfer your app(s) to your new developer account." Selling or handing over a catalogue has a sanctioned route too: "if a developer with a separate Play Console account wants to acquire your apps, our support team can transfer your apps to their account. After all apps have been transferred from your account, we can delete your account and refund your developer registration fee" - and "when you transfer apps to another Play Console account, all the apps' statistics are transferred with them". One trap: "Deleting a Google Account will not automatically delete your developer account." (§https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/13634888 / §https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9023898)
11. Appealing a mistaken association, and the evidence that actually carries weight. The appeal standard is error, so the deliverable is proof of independence rather than an argument about revenue: the payments-profile record showing who was an admin and since when; the identity documents and the D-U-N-S profile for each entity; a company-registry extract demonstrating that no single entity holds 50% or more of the voting rights or ownership interests across the accounts in question; the Account Group declaration history in Play Console; and the correspondence trail for the account alleged to be related. While the appeal is pending, do not open a replacement account - per section 7, a new account is exactly what gets terminated without a refund.
12. Multi-account hygiene and pre-registration checklist (2026). (i) Decide accounts per legal entity, not per app idea: accounts are connected by legal-entity identity and by payments profile, so multiplying accounts does not create distance. (ii) Share a payments profile only where the accounts genuinely "share the same identity details" - for a genuine organization that is the documented, recommended route; if you want separation, the identity details themselves must differ, not merely the login email. (iii) Keep the ADA / Account Group declaration accurate and current, especially while claiming a benefit such as the 15% service fee tier, since the group is Google's own inventory of who is associated with whom. (iv) Record in advance what links each account to you - payments-profile admins, D-U-N-S number, registration fees and invoices - because that record is the appeal. (v) Treat strikes per account: after any enforcement action, audit every app in that account, not just the flagged one. (vi) Never re-register after a DDA termination, and never continue serving the same catalogue under another person's identity. (vii) Move apps between accounts with the transfer flow so statistics and user entitlements travel with them. (viii) If an association is wrong, appeal with documentation of independent control rather than starting over.