Account Suspended No Email?? PLEASE HELP

[SherayoByHannah]

For the past couple of weeks I have opened my Etsy Shop and have started selling digital art, such as Twitch Emotes.

My sister in law randomly checked out my profile an hour or two ago and noticed it said that 'my profile is not currently selling'. I was confused since I was on my dashboard completely fine at around 1pm earlier today. I then checked to see my account has been suspended, but I cannot find any email to explain why. I have searched junk, spam, all my inboxes - Nothing!

I then immediately sent an appeal, explaining how I wasn't sure what the issue was and would like to understand why this has happened, however a couple of minutes later I got what seems like an automated response saying:

[This content was removed by Moderation - Please refer to our Community Policies]

I thought it might have been a case of Etsy suspending new shops as I read that a lot of shop owners have had this happen, but this response has completely stumped me!

I cannot request another appeal yet, and cannot seem to find a different way to contact Etsy.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!

[cindylouwho2]

This is not uncommon. If everything you were selling was allowed on Etsy and was legal etc. then you may be reinstated, despite the appeal denial. It's not unusual for new shops to be shut by bots and then reopened later. 

However, if there were any issues at all, you are probably out of luck. Etsy has more shops than it wants right now, and is being more strict about rules. The use of trademarked names that your products are meant to be used with may have triggered a bot involved with preventing counterfeit. 

Here is the appeal link: https://www.etsy.com/appeals 

or try this: https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?segment=selling#issue_sell_shipping_profiles-contact_sel...

[SherayoByHannah]

Thank you for your reply!

I have checked over the rules and I cannot see anything I've obviously done wrong, so I'm hoping it'll be the former rather than the latter.

Also, you mentioned that the "use of trademarked names that your products are meant to be used with" could cause a bot to flag my shop, may I ask what trademark names this may be? If you mean 'YouTube', 'Twitch', etc. then I'm confused as I've seen many listings of similar products that contain these names in the title, yet they are still open just fine. 

Thank you again for the response, I just hope things go well! 

[cindylouwho2]

@SherayoByHannah sometimes you can use trademarked names, with permission of the owner and in other legal exceptions. That does not mean the bots will not catch you when you open.

As I said, Etsy is being stricter with new shops lately. Whether they allow you to reopen, or ever go after existing shops, is too hard to guess from where we are sitting. 

I looked you up and you seemed to be driving traffic to Etsy quite a bit. Why not sell in cheaper ways than an Etsy shop? You could avoid these bots, the total lack of communication, and the high fees. Etsy doesn't seem to be a good fit for you even without trademark concerns. 

Good luck with your business! 

[ArtDollsbyJD]

@SherayoByHannah   I'm sorry this has happened to you but what exactly were you selling?  Are these your designs or are they designs based on other designs such as anime? You can try to appeal again but before you do review the guidelines for selling on Etsy and make a plan to tell Etsy what you plan to do.  Show them that it is your artwork, made by you and not based on anyone else's.  If you sell elsewhere or have had your art copied, you may need to inform Etsy that you are selling elsewhere under this name or if photos stolen file a takedown whereever the photos are located to protect your intellectual property.  I did find your profile on Deviant Art.  The artwork looks like anime. Are the works based on anime characters which are most likely trademarked?  

Once you have a plan written try again.  Others have had their shops reopened but others have not.

I understand the lack of communicating is frustrating but Etsy is protecting themselves by not giving out the information.  It may sound counterintuitive.  But that happens to be the way many businesses work. 

[SherayoByHannah]

Thanks for your reply!

I was selling Twitch Emotes, all designs were made by myself and they were not based off of any anime or other intellectual properties. If they happened to look like any pre-existing characters, it would've been purely unintentional.

What you saw on my deviant are were redesigns of drawings I made when I was younger. They are also designs I made up myself and were not based off of anything pre-existing. 

My Instagram has my listings posted there to advertise them, so if you'd like to check them over to see what I had listed, please feel free. It's @ sherayobyhannah, same as my shop. 

I don't sell anywhere else, I had plans to in the future, but the only place I've had them reposted is on my socials.

I am more so confused on what I can do to solve this since I never got the email explaining what the issue was, and when I tried to contact them, I basically got told they wouldn't reconsider when they never seemed to read what I wrote in the appeal in the first place. 

But thank you for your response, I will try to formulate a plan of action to get this sorted.

[Vintorious]

It looks like you were selling digital emotes for streaming platforms. You had the names of several in your title (I'm guessing also in tags and description), which I think may be the reason for your suspension. 

[SherayoByHannah]

Thank you for your reply!

As I've seen in another comment, do you mean things such as 'Youtube' and 'Twitch'?

I did not realise that may have been an issue as I saw so many accounts selling similar items that used these names in their titles, and assumed this was a normal way to advertise them. 

[Vintorious]

That is correct: YouTube, Twitch, and Discord are all trademarked, so they are not free to use for promoting Etsy listings. You would have to pay a fee to each, if they allow it at all. Etsy hasn't caught up with every instance of IP infringement, so it's not unusual to see it here, unfortunately. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

You can't use trademarked names to sell items, unless you have a licence from the trademark holder,

You don't see the ones that have already been caught and closed down, only the ones that have not been caught yet.

[howtobooksandmore]

I did not realise that may have been an issue as I saw so many accounts selling similar items that used these names in their titles, and assumed this was a normal way to advertise them. 

This is probably the problem.  Just because you saw it on Etsy doesn't mean it is allowed.  New shops get a lot more scrutiny, even if it is from a bot, than established shops.  When those shops add new items or renew items, they are looked at and possibly flagged for these same infringements.  Congress is talking about making websites more responsible for these types of infringements and Etsy is taking steps to remove them before they have to face more stringent laws in this area.  It is easier to shut these shops down before they make their first sales than try and clean up the mess afterwards.  You may not be able to reopen your shop but the best way is to educate yourself on IP laws in the US, find something else to sell that doesn't infringe on IP, tell Etsy what you intend to sell and ask them to restore your shop.  But don't count on it because the rule here and elsewhere is one shop per lifetime.  Once a shop is shut down for breaking the law, it is permanent.