Editing Always Deactivates My Listings

[GlobalrenDesigns]

Everytime I edit a listing or batch edit several listings at once, they get deactivated, accompanied by the standard generic email and then, 12 - 48 hours later they slowly get re-activated, one by one, again accompanied by the standard generic apology email. At times I've had 70 - 80 deactivated listings, after I batch edited lots of descriptions - my email inbox was going crazy! Apart from being very annoying, it also wastes a lot of my time.
I've tried chatting with support and they keep repeating that the listings violate their polices...etc etc, even though they are old listing that have been active in my shop for months and they always get re-activated. Out of the hundreds of deactivations I've never had a listing permanently deactivated.

[howtobooksandmore]

Etsy is starting to review renewed and edited listings for IP infringements.  If there is none, they are reactivated.  Support is only parroting what they are told and are pretty much useless for actually giving relevant information on anything.  The fact that the listings have been active or inactive for years is meaningless as there have been shops selling infringing items for years while Etsy ignores violation notices from anyone but the IP holders filing a legal document.  They have started reviewing listings recently to hopefully deal with the biggest violators, which in no way should be interpreted to mean you are violating anything.

[GlobalrenDesigns]

I'm all for Etsy cleaning up the platform and closing down all the "Starbucks", "Disney", "Taylor Swift" (to name just a few) counterfeiters, along with the thousands of resellers.
However, the bot also deactivates then reactivates and a week later deactivates the same listing, just because, for example, the delivery profile or thumbnail was updated. At this very moment I have 10 deactivated listings because I just updated their delivery profiles. Some of which were deactivated and reactivated just a week or ago when they were first listed.

[TreeTreasuresCanada]

FYI, Smiley word and image are trademarked.  As to the constant deactivation, perhaps it's the rampant use of the same mock ups by multiple shops in multiple venues.  Everyone's t-shirts may have different graphics but, due to the mock ups, look the same.  Could be that the bots see the t-shirt with X design being the same as the t-shirt with Y design and it takes some time to determine that one bunch of flowers, or whatever, is different from the other bunch of flowers.  Just guessing.

[GlobalrenDesigns]

"FYI, Smiley word and image are trademarked." ?

[PlatypusDream]

@GlobalrenDesigns 

YUP.

https://smiley.com/pages/brand-protection

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9a3n/the-people-getting-sued-by-big-smiley

Also, do your homework on "vanlife".

[GlobalrenDesigns]

"FYI, Smiley word and image are trademarked."
I questioned this remark because there aren't any "smiley face icons / symbols on any of my designs.

[TreeTreasuresCanada]

@GlobalrenDesigns  Featured item, second from the left, has a Smiley face.

[BagmakerSupply]

@GlobalrenDesigns: "... after I batch edited lots of descriptions ..." The bots seem to check when a listing is created, renewed and / or edited.

"... they are old listing that have been active in my shop for months ..." The triggers that flag a listing change constantly. And as your own experience confirms the many other posts in this forum, the false positive rate seems to be very high.

[BootifulLabels · Accepted solution]

The automated filters scan recently created or edited listings for trigger words or images that MAY indicate a breach of Etsy policies.  From observation, it appears they used to only do it when items were first published, or when they expired or were renewed, but clever rule-breakers would attempt to avoid attention by leaving out the key words that would likely trigger a removal, and then editing the listing some time later to include those keywords.  So now they also target edited listings.  It is less stressful if you just look at Etsy as a curated site, where you may create new listings, but they are held and not publicly available until they are vetted and published to the site. I have sold on a number of curated sites in my time, and they actually work well and do make a difference to the amount of listings which breach the rules.