TEMU stole my pictures, then Etsy removed 14 of my listings due to Etsy's creativity standards

[#1]

Hi,

Half a year ago I found my product pictures on TEMU. I tried everything but I could not make TEMU remove them, there are still many of my pics can be found on their website.  

A week ago Etsy removed 14 of my items for violating "Etsy's creativity standards".

In the notification emails they listed policies that I may have broken. I very carefully read all the rules, many times, and I'm not violating anything.

The banned products are my 100% handmade earrings, designed and prepared by me, the product pictures are taken by me as well. 

In the last few days I tried everything I could to find out what made Etsy to ban my listings, but I kept receiving the same panel answers.

However, the first real answer finally arrived today was terrifying:

In the message they claimed that the items I've listed are commercially available, they are not designed or created by me (a statement, not a question!!!). And then they added a TEMU link, which they believe proves that my earrings can be found elsewhere, hence I'm only a reseller. 

In my answer I explained that my pics were stolen by TEMU, and all my products are 100% handmade by me, but Etsy only replied that they need to protect their buyers and sellers, and they can’t respond to further emails about this. They didn't address anything of what I explained in my email.

I feel highly frustrated. I have 100+ listings that are a similar to the removed ones, so as I'm afraid such removal can happen again anytime. 

Does anyone know how (where?) can I prove that I'm the designer and creator and my pics were stolen? Where can I find a platform where a REAL human can REALLY look at my evidences?

Thank you!

[Amaradorn]

To report intellectual property infringement on Temu...

https://www.temu.com/support/c3/how-to-report-intellectual-property--f-60-s-179.html

[KanjaniCraft]

I find this scandalous and it really should be reported in the media. This problem is entirely of Etsy’s making.

Etsy‘s USP is they offer a platform for the public to access unique handmade or designed items and so it makes sense they should try to police and enforce that. But even with a basic grasp of police work you would understand that you can’t go around arresting people without proving they‘re guilty (or at least allowing them to prove they are innocent) - because otherwise you’re just running an arbitrary dictatorship. The most ironic part is that their current automated process actually favours the resellers and not the original artist - nonsense upon stilts if I ever saw it because the net result is that you exclude any artist whose work has actually been good enough to copy (which the copiers determine by trawling listings with Etsy’s Bestseller badge). Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Both feet, really, because you alienate the true artist in the process so they are less likely to return to Etsy afterwards.

What I actually find really tragic is it only takes a human being with half a brain to work out who the fraudster is in (I would guesstimate) 80% of the cases. I mean these Chinese resellers make so little effort to make presentable listings or even take decent photos it’s an instant diagnosis - I mean a 9 year old could work it out just by looking at the first listing photo ALONE. Go to TEMU or Ali and look at the photos and compare them with the original listing - even when they copy the original photos their versions are grainy, obscured and cutoff. Nobody with any pride in their work would present it like that. 

As sellers I think we should also keep trying to think of creative ways of thwarting resellers. I have dark skin - none of the photos with my hands in make it onto Ali so far, so I am trying to feature my lovely skin more.  I have also started making my pins very artistically complex - harder and more expensive both to copy and to produce. Unless you copy my very detailed artwork AND the multistage production process - you can’t even come close to making the same pin, so it’s a bigger upfront investment for resellers if they do want to copy it. Of course they can steal my photos to sell their poor imitation but the customer reviews will indicate the actual product is crap, so I have now taken to buying the fake listings and writing terrible reviews and will start adding photos to put other buyers off. Following advice here I also report any offending listings which have not been taken down to Google which makes those Ali/Temu listings not visible on Google search. And so on…. Would love to hear more ideas for thwarting resellers. I *love* the Trustpilot tip above I will now take to adding crap Trustpilot reviews of Aliexpress too.

[ShadyCharactersArt]

Etsy is not respecting it's sellers to even look at the problem or explanation.   They are just giving us canned answers and saying that's all they can do, when we put our heart and soul into our shops. This mass removal by bots is so unfair with no real ways to straighten it out.  Really feels like a witch hunt.  ETSY, wake up and start treating us with respect. 

[pennyemporium]

a very chilling post by @cindylouwho2;

"Etsy Support told me today that sellers are no longer allowed to appeal removals. I've been through 5 rounds with them now. A shop I had been trying to help has just been closed for multiple bot takedowns, too. They make it impossible to appeal.

It's not a good time to be an Etsy seller, that is for sure..."

posted to this thread: 

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Unexplained-deactivation-support-needed/td-p/14649236...

[cindylouwho2]

It's unlikely anyone has even looked at any evidence you submitted; I know for sure they did not look at mine. 

You can keep hammering away at Support, and that might work. But the 3 approaches that work best are:

1. Legal help - get a lawyer to write a letter for you. Demand the items be reinstated. 
2. Bad publicity - get attention on social media or from news media
3. sometimes posting here in the forum helps, but lately that has been less successful on average. I know of sellers who had items restored in the last week after posting here, though, so your thread isn't entirely a lost cause yet. 

[Chrysalism]

All of this. It also might help to file a complaint with the BBB. I saw one seller who got help from Etsy within 3 days of filing a report, though it could have been a coincidence. This was a few months ago and it sounds like things have gotten much worse since then, so it may not help, but worth a shot. This whole situation is so awful : (

[myBeltBuckle]

I thought about that too, but based in Europe I have no idea where to find a lawyer who drafts a legal letter for an American giant.

But I will not give up, I will continue to write letters, chat, and call, just in case someone finelly listens to me.

[LegendaryStones]

My understanding is if you go into Etsy Help you will eventually get to a place where you can upload pics of you making your items and also the metadata on your own pics for your listings (showing your pics are much older than the temu listing). My understanding is that it takes 1-2 months for an Etsy human to review and decide. What I find interesting is the amount of money Etsy must be losing mega $$$ closing down thousands of legitimate best-selling listings for 1-2 months.  It would cost Etsy no more manpower or $ if they just sent a request to the seller so the seller could upload the pics and the metadata and Etsy could review (over 1-2 months) and then remove the listing if (and that's a big if) they find it does, indeed, violate policy. In the interim Etsy is shooting itself in the foot by deactivating all these well-selling listings only to come back months later with  "our error - we see you did make the item and are reactivating it".   They would be better off if they designed their bots to scan shops to see who has only 1-4 employees, yet 100+  items and 400 of each item ready to ship within 3 days. Unless they have bionic employees they are not making those items themselves. 

[cindylouwho2]

@LegendaryStones "My understanding is if you go into Etsy Help you will eventually get to a place where you can upload pics of you making your items and also the metadata on your own pics for your listings (showing your pics are much older than the temu listing)." - could you link to that, please? Because the appeal page does not allow appeals of listings removed for stolen photos, and Support even told me they couldn't let us appeal now. 

"What I find interesting is the amount of money Etsy must be losing mega $$$ closing down thousands of legitimate best-selling listings for 1-2 months." Etsy says that removing shops and listings at worst costs them half a percent of revenue per quarter. Buyers just buy other items.  

[Amaradorn]

@LegendaryStones are you referring to the IP Reporting Portal when you can register your intellectual property such as listing photos? 

[pennyemporium]

@cindylouwho2:

perhaps i am misunderstanding, however, if a seller has had listings removed, and that seller goes to their Etsy Appeals Center ( https://www.etsy.com/appeals ), and it says ""It looks like your account doesn't have an issue that's eligible for appeal." that the seller CAN NOT appeal their listing takedowns?  

and that this "can't appeal" message indicates stolen photos?

i am horrified if this is correct.

[cindylouwho2]

@pennyemporium When my item was removed, the appeal page did not allow me to appeal. 

[ChantillyAvenue]

@cindylouwho2 

I would rather they just apologize for their AI, admit it's crap, but good enough for their standards, and we can just piss off if we don't like it. They aren't going to invest  the money or resources required to reverse the damage to individual shops.  All that matters is it doesn't affect their bottom line.  This so needs to go mainstream.  They need to be publicly humiliated for their unspeakable incompetence and utter lack of concern.

[artbyjocelyn]

It's always Bestsellers too, it seems, and likely an item that the thief seller feels they can manage to re-create even if the knock off is shoddy.

[theCopperPoppy]

This is absolutely horrifying, and as Sellers, we all should be terrified that we're next. 

The lack of ability to "keep commerce Human" with Etsy Seller Support in critical instances like this is disturbing, to say the least.

[CricketPondKids]

I don't understand something.  If they steal the pictures, where are they getting the product to fill orders?  

[BagmakerSupply]

@CricketPondKids: There are two primary business plans used by the intellectual property thieves - they either do not fill the order at all or they make / purchase an inferior clone.

[CryzalisMasksUK]

With temu and aliexpress report the url containing your stolen images to Google, if they refuse to remove them. You can also file a take down with their servers 

[KanjaniCraft]

Do check back on Google from time to time, Ali express refused to take down 3 listings but Google removed them from Google search. Yesterday I found one of the stores as created a new listing using the same and more of my pictures and got that up, so I have had to report to Google yet again. It’s whack a mole and I really wish there was a way to make Ali express pay for allowing bootleggers to run rampant - some sort of punishment with teeth.

[myBeltBuckle]

Where can I report to Google? Would you please help me out with a link?  

[koolstuff2]

Just my opinion but I think Etsy is making it easy for Temu and Aliexpress to figure out which items to target by putting the Best Seller and Popular Now badges on items. Big bullseyes!  

[FabioMcMustache · Accepted solution]

Hello! We're sorry to hear you're experiencing issues with your listings. We've forwarded your concerns to a specialist team, and your case is being worked on as we speak - Moving forward, they will handle it directly with you, so please stay tuned to your email as they may reach out through there. Thank you! 

Please know we handle support inquiries privately per our Community Policy – we’re closing this thread, so you can get the support you need from us directly.