Wrong decision about Handmade Policy Violation - Suspend and Holiday Mode.

[WeddingRingsStore]

Hello. My name is Serhii Katan, I am the owner of Etsy store with the name WeddingRingsStore - https://www.etsy.com/shop/WeddingRingsStore.
My store has been working on Etsy for more than 8 years. During this time my team and I have built a large community of our jewelry lovers, made over 45k sales and received over 13.4k customer reviews. I have a star seller badge and have never lost it since I got it. We always do the best for each of our customers, that's why we are loved and trusted.

My store was forcibly put on vacation mode for 28 days with a warning that it would be Permanently Banned after that, due to what is called a Violation of Etsy's Handmade Policy.
The thing is, one of our bestselling products was blocked by Etsy for this reason about 2 months ago. As far as we understand, there is no appeal form provided by Etsy for such cases. All that is provided is deactivation of the item, and a note of "violation" on the listing with a link to their handmade policy: https://www.etsy.com/hk-en/legal/handmade. We found out that a certain Chinese store (or stores) took a photo of our item and posted it on their site, which may have been the reason Etsy considered the item unoriginal. This is one of my best sellers, which was posted on Etsy a very long time ago, gets over 5k views every month and has been bought over 1000 times in the whole period.
After a while, exactly the same incident happened with 2 more listings. And then, about 2-3 weeks later - we received a message from the platform with the information about putting the store in vacation mode until the full fulfillment of current obligations on orders, and then - there will be a Permanent Ban!

I affirm that I am in full compliance with Etsy's policies regarding my products. My team and I have full in-house production, our own product designs, our own metals and stones. All items are certified, and the customer receives the appropriate document when they receive the item from us.
These items have been listed on Etsy for a long time. They have gotten a huge number of sales and love from customers.
Here are the titles of these items:
1. Dainty branch and leaves Peridot ring, Flower on the twig ring, Wild nature ring, Unique peridot ring, Unusual engagement ring for her (bought over 1000 times)
2. Garnet unique branch engagement ring, Twig Engagement ring, Garnet Engagement ring, Womens branch ring, January Birthstone Ring Gift for Her
3. Snail on a branch ring with Emerald, Tiny sterling silver ring, Emerald woodbark small ring, Unique snail and leaf ring, Gift for girlfriend ( bought more than 600 times )

I believe that this decision on the part of the platform is wrong. I can prove this in many ways:
- I can capture on video the full process of production of this product;
- I can provide original photos of the product, with metadata that contains the date of appearance of this design;
- These listings have been on Etsy for a long time (the year of posting and other information Etsy can see in its own internal statistics).

Plenty of people can come out in support of us, proving that our presence on the platform makes Etsy better by filling it with goods that actually comply with all policies (unlike a lot of resellers). For example, one of stores stole one of our designs by enlarging the product photo and cropping our logo, and we can prove it. However, this store continues to operate, selling our design, and no sanctions have been imposed. Why?

We hope for a favorable resolution to this incomprehensible error. Thank you.
With respect,
Serhii Katan.

[MeggiexStore]

I don't have any advice for you as I'm in the same position but I really hope you get this all figured out! It is so frustrating and upsetting

[Jewelrymuseum]

hey, but I see your store is active how did you get back? I had appealed from last 22 days regarding the removed listing and 2 days since I appealed my suspension

[AutumnHollowStudio]

I think you are another seller in a loooong line of sellers that are the victim of etsy's bots, and it's awful that this is happening.

You need to do reverse image searches on all of your product images and see where they are being used in various online marketplaces and file DMCA reports with those sites to have them taken down. And provide evidence to etsy that you are making these yourself - photos, and a video of your design/creation process would be best as well.

Etsy has bots that do image recognition searches and if they find your image used on sites that sells mass quantities of products, they punish you before even confirming that you are legit, and it's really unfair to real handmade sellers. They do catch actual offenders during these sweeps, but a lot of others are getting unfairly caught up in this.

Good luck.

[JMOldeVintage]

@WeddingRingsStore  - It appears you have done so many things correctly. Your about section has photos of you creating your listings, you have your team members included in the appropriate section. 

As @AutumnHollowStudio if your listing photos are being stolen and are on various less than reputable websites, you need to file DMCA's, take down notices, with those websites. Hopefully the overall process is the same for you in the Ukraine as it would be for shops in the USA.

If another Etsy shop has stolen your photos you can read this & report internally - https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/45201391727
Scroll down to "File a report".

Sadly, the deactivation notices that Etsy sends do sort of imply that there is no appealing their decision. Or if you did send some sort of appeal the response you received could well have been bot generated too. Depending on how it was worded you may have thought you couldn't go further.

First take the time to do reverse image searches of your items & file take downs with the websites. Then gather all the necessary information on the deactivated listings. Show a video of your creative process, mention how long the listings in your shop etc. Include copies of the DMCA/s, the takedown notices, you filed with the other websites. 

Then you will need to be extremely patient. Etsy's customer service to shop owners is back logged. If all you receive are generic replies from Etsy, respond to those emails, that your issue is not resolved. 

Hopefully you have success.