Documented concerns about copied demo content, prior app installation and suspicious Shopify reviews connected to Dragon Apps.
TL;DR: We found that a later Dragon Apps VAT exemption product published demo text and test data matching our EU Tax Exemption Easy demo. Our records also show a DragonDropThemes-linked test store installed our app months before the competing app launched. We are publishing the evidence and asking Dragon Apps for an explanation.
This post documents our experience with Dragon Apps, Yussufs.com and Yussuf Siddique. We have separated what the public evidence shows from what we cannot independently prove.
Building a competing Shopify app is legitimate. Independently implementing VAT validation through VIES is legitimate. Reproducing another developer’s written demo content and selected test data is not an acceptable way to compete.
Yussuf Siddique publicly lists Dragon Apps in Brisbane on his LinkedIn profile. That profile links both Dragon Apps and DragonDropThemes.
His public “Yussuf The Shopify Expert” profile goes further. In his own description, he writes that he builds apps at Dragon Apps and specifically names “EU VAT Tax Exemption” among them. It also links to Yussufs.com.
This establishes a direct public connection between Yussuf Siddique, Dragon Apps and the competing EU VAT Tax Exemption product. It does not by itself prove which individual wrote or pasted a particular page, so our content-copying claim is directed at the material published by Dragon Apps.
Our partner records show that a store named “UPC EAN Manager App Test Store” installed EU Tax Exemption Easy on January 5, 2026. The store information shown in the same record uses [email protected] and identifies the store as Australian. A test subscription was activated at the same time.
The timeline is relevant:
This does not prove that private source code was copied. It does establish that a test store publicly connected through the DragonDropThemes identity had access to our working app before the later Dragon Apps product launched.
On July 13, 2026, we compared our demo page with the demo store linked from the Dragon Apps Shopify listing. The result was not merely two companies explaining the same VAT rule. The Dragon Apps page reproduced distinctive sentences, the same selected VAT numbers and the same ordering.
Both pages contain the same explanation for non-Belgian VAT IDs:
These will be validated against the VIES (VAT Information Exchange System). Upon successful validation, customers will be tax-exempt.
Both then use the same wording for Belgian VAT IDs:
These will also be validated through the system and confirmed as valid. However, they will not receive tax exemption since the store and customer are in the same country.
The visible test list then repeats the same VAT IDs in the same order:
NL806768289B01BE0839407415IE3347697KHDE115235681IT00470470014ATU70953701FR63382357721It also repeats the same specific note after the German VAT number: “German VAT service doesnt return a company name or address.” The matching wording, selection, order and unusual German note are why we consider this copied demo content rather than an independent explanation of a shared technical subject.
No developer owns the idea of validating VAT numbers through VIES. But another developer does not need to reproduce our authored explanation and chosen test sequence to demonstrate that feature.
The reviews attached to the Dragon Apps product show a separate pattern that concerns us.
At the time of capture, the three public reviews were:
A merchant’s country alone does not make a review false. A business outside the EU can sell to European customers. The review content and extremely short usage periods are the real concern.
After four minutes, Vessel & Verse claimed to have tested various European VAT codes and said the app made its backend accounting “incredibly smooth.” After five minutes, D’Duchess Vault claimed the app provided a “flawless experience for European corporate clients.” Those are broad operational claims to make after only a few minutes.
The reviewers’ activity on another Shopify listing makes the pattern more troubling. Vessel & Verse also reviewed a Store Credit app after one minute and claimed that it had “doubled our repeat purchase rate in the first month.” The displayed one-minute installation period and the claimed first-month result cannot both reflect experience with that installation.
D’Duchess Vault reviewed that same Store Credit app after one minute using the description “Wine & spirits merchant: Credits for corked bottles or as thank-yous.” Its public storefront currently presents household goods, pet products, beauty products and jewelry, not wine or spirits.
Shopify’s own developer guidance says merchants cannot provide a genuine review if they have not spent enough time with an app. It tells developers not to request reviews during installation or onboarding. Shopify’s review policies prohibit fake, misleading and commercially manipulated reviews.
These facts do not prove that Dragon Apps purchased, requested or coordinated the reviews. We therefore do not state that as fact. They do provide substantial reason to question whether the reviews represent genuine, informed merchant use. We believe they warrant investigation by Shopify.
We are dissatisfied with how Dragon Apps has approached this.
The later product closely mirrors the purpose and public positioning of EU Tax Exemption Easy. More importantly, its demo reproduces our wording and test-data arrangement after a DragonDropThemes-linked test store had installed our app. We consider the public demo material copied. In plain English, we regard the unauthorized reproduction of our authored content as content theft.
We are not claiming that we inspected Dragon Apps’ private source code. We make no claim that its source code is identical to ours. We also cannot determine from the public evidence which individual pasted the copied text. Our conclusions are limited to what the screenshots, partner records and public listings demonstrate.
We have preserved the original screenshots and relevant Shopify listing information.
We are willing to publish a substantive response from Yussuf Siddique or Dragon Apps. If they provide information that materially changes the documented facts, we will review it and update this post transparently.
Dragon Apps or Yussuf Siddique can reach us through our contact page.
Competition should produce better Shopify apps. It should not involve taking another developer’s content and presenting it as your own.