Etsy robots are deactvating our listings

[stonefeverjewelry]

Etsy has been removing select listings from my shop for a couple years now. I have never been able to get a clear answer from management about what their reason is. I recently had a long chat session with the bots and add supposedly humans (?) and was told maybe I was being accused of intellectual property infringement and the person or robot suggested that I do a Google lens search on the Deactivated listing. I did the search and found a listing on Amazon in a Chinese Amazon store that was using my exact pictures copied and pasted from my listing. I think Etsy is using bots to search the web and deactvating my listings when they find a match. The problem is this last time I received an email from management notifying me that next time this happens my shop will be suspended. Also they are telling me that I will not longer be eligible for Star seller badges. I've tried everything I know to o resolve this but have so far gotten no help from management. I've been selling on Etsy for 15 years and have over a thousand listings and 3500 sales but still no support. I feel very disrespected and unappreciated. Etsy sales account for over half of my annual sales the rest are from exhibition. Very disappointed and scared that the bots are doing this to us and people are not helping. I hope someone In the community or in management will help stop this from happening.

[GieseDeseiGns]

I think they're telling you your shop will be closed. You need to go after the people who are stealing from you. File a DMCA against them, or the site they are selling on.  and then send Etsy a copy to prove you are policing your items, otherwise they will continue to think you are a reseller using items from other sites. Unfortunately on E you are guilty until proven innocent when it comes to the items showing on other sites.

[VintageRescueSquad]

"Management" cannot do anything. You are required to file DCMA takedowns on those sites. As stated above, provide a copy of it to etsy to provie you are protecting your IP.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

@stonefeverjewelry   You need to file a DMCA against all businesses that have stolen your photos and then report back to Etsy that you have done so. 

It is up to you to protect your copyright and in this case it is the photos.

Etsy Bots are designed to visit various sites like Shein and Temu among others.  Etsy's first defense is to remove the listing and then inform you of this.  Your next step is to find where the stolen photo is being used and have it taken down and then reported.

Unfortunately Etsy cannot operate to give sellers notice first before taking down.  This method allows Etsy to catch sellers who are reselling and the numbers must be enough that the legitimate sellers who get caught up in this are few.  If they gave sellers advance notice then sellers not following the rules would be able to circumvent or change so they appear to be legitimate.

The wording of the email is unfortunate but there are seller who ignore Etsy and don't take it seriously.

Best wishes that you get this resolved. 

[hopeandjoystudios]

Etsy won't tell you the issue as if you were sctually "guilty" they don't eant to help you get around the removal..but that leavrs a lot of legit sellers in the dark.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@stonefeverjewelry  Follow what other sellers here have suggested. Your shop will not remain open for long if you don't do something soon.

[GroundZeroCreations]

I'm so sorry you're going through this—it's incredibly frustrating to see your product images stolen like that. Sadly, this kind of thing happens far too often, especially to sellers with higher-end products. A lot of them end up hiring companies to monitor listings and file takedown requests on their behalf.

In my experience, platforms like Amazon are usually quick to respond to takedown notices, and I had a similar situation on eBay where they acted fast too. While I’m not sure of the exact costs involved, I’ve heard some sellers mention a service called Pixsy that helps track and handle unauthorized use of images. I don’t know all the details, but it might be worth looking into as a way to protect your work.

Hang in there—I hope you’re able to get it resolved quickly.

[stonefeverjewelry]

Thanks for the advice. I'm working on it but as the only one at my shop, handling all the listings, production, photos, customer service, shipping, design, etc, it's beyond frustrating having to protect myself from being punished by the very platform (Etsy) that I helped build and enrich over 15 years of hard work. I'm way more concerned about Etsy shutting down my shop than pirates stealing my pictures. I really appreciate the help I'm receiving from the community but I wish Etsy would do the same or at least not punish me so harshly. Suspending shops for this reason with no help or explanation is just totally unacceptable!

[NovaGemsStore]

This is such BS.  It's almost as if Etsy wants their company to fail and fold up. 

[stonefeverjewelry]

I can't even reply anymore, when I post and hit reply I get a verifying device screen briefly and then black screen 

[NovaGemsStore]

Same.  I cant use the phone app, the only way I can post now is using a desktop pc.  Etsy is such a joke.

[Artlysian]

The only safe solution for you is to change all photos and put watermarks.

I know this is not fair, but it is the only way to protect your shop. I fought for more than 5 years with the same problem, but in my case, there were hundreds of shops on different platforms and new ones every day. After Etsy deactivated the same listing multiple times and waited on average 5 weeks to fix the mistake, I gave up and made new photos.

There was a fight with other sellers, and there was a fight with Etsy, but it is not worth it. Today, it is easy with AI software to remove watermarks, but I hope it won't happen.

[stonefeverjewelry]

I was finally contacted by a reply to my help order by someone in management. They reinstated my listing but I just had to delete it anyway because I was unable to get Amazon to remove it from their platform so as long as it's there I'm afraid the bots will add another infraction to my record. I asked the Etsy representative to consider removing my previous "infractions" so my shop won't be suspended next time this happens but all I got back so far was another link to Etsy policies.

[GroundZeroCreations]

@stonefeverjewelry 

Don't be afraid of having the listing on Amazon too. A lot of my listings also appear on Amazon and I have never had a problem with it. 

I think what the Etsy bots look for is finding the listing on sites like Temu. I suspect that see that as a possibility that this is reselling. The only thing I know for certain is that Etsy does not have any policy prohibiting selling the same product on other platforms.

[CoquetteBath]

I cannot imagine the pain & frustration that this causes. Seriously. WTH?

but, while I know that Etsy & Google don't like it, I would seriously say you need to start putting your logo on each & every design, overlapping the product. It will hurt you on Google, and yes, a true hacker CAN remove it, but it never looks quite the same...so that may help you. They don't want to do any more work than needed.

Also, if you don't already do this, start engraving your biz name on the inside of each piece. Show that in the listing photos, too.

when you sell unbranded items, it just too dang easy for unscrupulous people to take advantage.

for the record, and maybe doesn't count, I think your work is absolutely amazing. I personally adore colored stones, too! Where I sit, I have a very large labradorite nearby. And I do mean 'large', like it weighs about 5 pounds. Polished and utterly amazing. I got more. I just love color stones.

you do need to protect yourself. I wish I had better advice...and I wish you the best. Truly.

[ModernCarpet]

Sama problem I faced, Etsy do the same action with me. I am the old seller too but there is not any help from Etsy. I am very disappointed but here is not any value for our disappointment. Etsy put my shop in vacation mode for 28 days, and after 28 days Etsy will close my shop permanently. I have the only one way to do my business only on Etsy, i have spent all my money and time for my Etsy shop but now that all are useless.

[stonefeverjewelry]

Etsy told me the reason they deactivated my listing was because they suspected me of selling someone else's work because my photos were in the Chinese Amazon store.

Amazon would not remove the listing on their platform so I deleted my listing even though Etsy reactivated it.

I'm really just concerned about my shop being suspended next time a bot finds one of my pictures on another platform.

Watermarks on all my pictures are not an option, I probably have 6 or 8 thousand pictures in my shop and there are plenty of programs that blot out backgrounds anyway.

Thanks for the advice and support everyone

[BotanicalBirdJewelry]

Yes, robots are running the show now on Etsy!

[lazydazefarm]

I went through this about a month ago.  I was not contacted by etsy but found my photos on amazon myself and so did three other etsy sellers.  We all had them removed from Amazon, but was told by Amazon without a lawyer the seller could relist the items with the same photos after 10 days.  We are all small sellers and cannot afford a lawyer.  I guess unless we are rich we cannot stop those shops. Besides if Amazon shuts them down, they just open another store and steal more photos.  I found my photos on Amazon as far back as 2018.  Almost every photo on the page I found was stolen from Etsy.  There were 7 pages of photos just in that one store and there are thousands of other stores doing the same thing there.

[ModernCarpet]

I have no way to remove the vacation mode on my shop. I am trying to contact Etsy support, file an Appeal but there is still no help. i am very tensed about my shop that after 6 days it will permanently close. Please help me please if any one give help from the community member to remove the vacation mode and regain access my shop, it will much appreciable. I think Etsy did not keep the help employee for the seller, there are all activities in Etsy done by Robot or AI tool, for this reason there are more shops and listings closed automatedly with ought any info. This is not the good activity of Etsy. This is very frustrating and disappointed.

thank you