The proliferation of counterfeit goods undermines market fairness, and sellers jointly demand Etsy to rectify

It is learned that on February 23, after being accused by Citron of too many counterfeits damaging the interests of the brand, Etsy was again opposed by third-party sellers over the problem of counterfeits. They claimed that the proliferation of counterfeits damaged the fair competition environment of the platform and put sellers selling authentic handicrafts at a disadvantage.

Prior to this, the conflict between Etsy and its third-party sellers had been escalating. Not only that, other e-commerce platforms also faced the same problem, so an independent sellers association ISG (IndieSellersGuild) emerged, which is a non-profit organization composed of nearly 3,000 independent sellers on platforms such as Etsy and Amazon.

The association was formed after a massive walkout by more than 30,000 Etsy sellers last year to protest rising seller fees, helping sellers win some small but important concessions from Etsy, and the association was formed to continue to fight for more favorable terms for sellers.

The ISG Association pointed out that the existence of counterfeit goods on Etsy has damaged the development of legitimate handmade products on the platform. It is reported that many of the goods on the platform are mostly purchased by sellers from platforms such as Alibaba, and then sold at high prices on Etsy as handmade goods.

The study found that the listings of the same product sold by different sellers were exactly the same, even the pictures were the same. This made it difficult for consumers to distinguish which ones were truly handmade, thus damaging the sales of sellers of genuine handicrafts.

An Etsy spokesperson responded that the company will release a transparency report in the coming weeks explaining how it combats counterfeits on the site, but many sellers are skeptical about the quality of the report and the feasibility of the platform's anti-counterfeiting efforts.

Previously, ISG also obtained concessions from the platform for sellers in response to Etsy's star seller program, reducing the requirement to complete at least 10 orders within three months to 5.

Due to Etsy’s position in the handicraft market, it is less likely that many sellers will turn to other platforms, where counterfeit goods are also a big problem. Therefore, in the future, more Etsy sellers may join the fight for more rights, which will also give Etsy more advantages in the sale of handicrafts.

Editor✎ Ashley/

Disclaimer: This article is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission.