Fakes are rampant! Etsy is accused of condoning the sale of fakes, and its stock price plummeted 8.4%

It is learned that on February 16, the founder of the well-known research company Citron Research commented in a live interview with Yahoo Finance that as the proportion of counterfeits continues to rise, Etsy has become one of the world's largest counterfeit platforms, which caused Etsy's stock price to fall 8.4% on the same day.

Citron founder Andrew Left said that the proportion of counterfeit goods on Etsy has reached a very serious level. The platform can no longer use the fact that they only account for a small part of its revenue as an excuse to condone them. The platform must take immediate action to combat counterfeiting.

Left pointed out that on Etsy, there are thousands of counterfeits of brands such as Nike, Disney, Louis Vuitton and Rolex. Although the platform has transparency reports and policies against counterfeits, the platform’s supervision of third-party sellers selling counterfeits is too lax.

According to Left, the Etsy platform does not have advertising services for specific brand keywords. Instead, it allows all third-party sellers to pay to promote certain brand keywords and allows sellers to pay to promote their listings in searches, which means that counterfeit goods may also be displayed on the homepage of search results.

Left believes that the management, knowingly and due to negligence in supervision, has caused Etsy to become the world's largest counterfeit platform. The platform not only condones the sale of counterfeit goods, but also causes the further proliferation of counterfeit goods by providing advertising space for these counterfeit goods.

Left noted that Etsy could be in violation of regulations by the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Customs and Border Protection.

In response, an Etsy spokesperson said in an email that the company has expanded its team dedicated to combating counterfeits and violations of its handmade product policies, stepped up efforts to eliminate counterfeit goods from its site, and deleted counterfeit listings.

Etsy's stock price fell nearly 9% after it was pointed out that the platform condoned the sale of counterfeit goods. In fact, due to weak consumption, Etsy's performance in the second half of last year was not ideal, and in the third quarter it announced its first loss in eight quarters.

In the face of the counterfeit storm and weak sales, Etsy may further strengthen counterfeit supervision to enhance customer shopping experience. So far this year, as of Friday's close, Etsy's stock price has risen by about 8%. But from the historical highs reached in the fall of 2021, the stock is still down more than 50%.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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